Establishment of the Marine Corps Unit Reference Number (URN) Repository (MUR)

1. BACKGROUND.
A. PER REFERENCE B, UNIT REFERENCE NUMBERS (URN) ARE USED BY UNITS
IN A VARIABLE MESSAGE FORMAT (VMF) INTERFACE TO UNIQUELY IDENTIFY
FRIENDLY MILITARY UNITS, BROADCAST NETWORKS, AND MULTICAST GROUPS.
URNS FACILITATE THE EXCHANGE OF MESSAGING AND SITUATIONAL AWARENESS
(SA) INFORMATION, PARTICULARLY IN LOW BANDWIDTH TACTICAL
ENVIRONMENTS. URN INFORMATION PROVIDES THE FOUNDATION FOR ADDRESS
BOOK INFORMATION USED IN SYSTEMS SUCH AS COMMAND AND CONTROL
PERSONAL COMPUTER (C2PC), BLUE FORCE TRACKER (BFT), AND THE ADVANCED
FIELD ARTILLERY TACTICAL DATA SYSTEM (AFATDS). USE OF URNS IN VMF
MESSAGING ENHANCES COMMAND AND CONTROL (C2), THE COMMON TACTICAL
PICTURE (CTP), AND THE COMMON OPERATIONAL PICTURE (COP).
B. THIS MESSAGE DOES NOT ADDRESS THE LARGER BATTLEFIELD OBJECT
IDENTIFICATION CAPABILITY THAT WILL BE REQUIRED UNDER THE MAGTF C2
CONCEPT. THE LARGER EFFORT MUST BE COORDINATED ACROSS ALL
COMMUNITIES OF INTEREST IN ORDER TO DETERMINE THE BEST ENTITY
RELATIONSHIP DATA MODEL, APPROPRIATE BUSINESS RULES, AND A SYSTEM
INITIALIZATION CAPABILITY THAT LEVERAGES DYNAMIC NET-CENTRIC
CONFIGURATIONS VICE STATIC DATABASE BUILDS. ADDITIONAL POLICIES AND
MESSAGES TO ADDRESS THIS CAPABILITY WILL FOLLOW AT A LATER DATE.
2. ASSIGNMENTS. PERMANENT URN ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE CENTRALLY
MANAGED BY A DESIGNATED MARINE CORPS URN MANAGER. PERMANENT URN
ASSIGNMENTS CURRENTLY INCLUDE ASSIGNMENTS TO TABLE OF ORGANIZATION
UNITS DOWN THROUGH THE TEAM LEVEL, PLTSGT AND ABOVE BILLETS,
SELECTED PLATFORMS, EQUIPMENT SUCH AS FIXED AND ROTARY WING
AIRCRAFT, AND TACTICAL UNITS. SPARE URN BLOCKS WILL BE PROVIDED TO
EACH MARINE EXPEDITIONARY FORCE (MEF) TO BE USED FOR CONTINGENCIES.
ONCE ASSIGNED, A SPARE URN IS KNOWN AS A TEMPORARY URN ASSIGNMENT.
3. REPOSITORY IMPLEMENTATION.
A. AS OF 18 NOVEMBER 2005, THE MUR IS ACCESSIBLE VIA A PORTAL ON THE
SPAWAR CHARLESTON TACMOBILE SIPRNET WEBSITE. USERS CAN ACCESS THE
MUR VIA THE FOLLOWING URL, HTTP: [SLASH] [SLASH]
TACMOBILE.SPAWAR.NAVY.SMIL.MIL [SLASH] URN_REPOSITORY [SLASH]. ANY
USER WITH ACCESS TO THE TACMOBILE WEBSITE MAY ACCESS AND DOWNLOAD
URN INFORMATION. TO REQUEST AN ACCOUNT, ACCESS THE TACMOBILE
NIPRNET WEBSITE AT HTTPS: [SLASH] [SLASH] TACMOBILE.SPAWAR.NAVY.MIL
[SLASH]. CLICK ON THE TACMOBILE WEB ACCOUNT LINK AND FILL OUT THE
ACCOUNT REQUEST FORM.
B. WE RECOGNIZE THAT A LIMITED NUMBER OF URNS HAVE BEEN LOCALLY
CREATED AND ASSIGNED. HOWEVER, IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT THESE LOCALLY
ASSIGNED URNS BE TRANSITIONED TO THEIR DESIGNATED URN ASSIGNMENT AS
IDENTIFIED IN THE MUR AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE TO PREVENT CONFLICTS IN
THE COP OR CTP.
C. TO FACILITATE CREATION OF C2PC ADDRESS BOOKS, A TOOL HAS BEEN
DEVELOPED THAT ALLOWS USERS TO PULL URN ASSIGNMENTS INTO A SEPARATE
TABLE WITHIN THE REPOSITORY TO BUILD THE C2PC ADDRESS BOOKS. ONCE
THE ADDRESS BOOK HAS BEEN BUILT, IT CAN BE DOWNLOADED FROM THE
REPOSITORY FOR LOADING INTO C2PC. BFT AND AFATDS ADDRESS BOOKS ARE
DEVELOPED AND DISSEMINATED BY THE ARMY. REQUESTS FOR ADDITIONS,
DELETIONS, OR CHANGES TO THESE ADDRESS BOOKS WILL BE FORWARDED TO
THE USMC URN MANAGER.
4. MUR MANAGEMENT. 
A. A USMC URN POLICY ORDER IS CURRENTLY BEING DRAFTED THAT WILL
FORMALIZE ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES. IN THE INTERIM, AS STATED IN
REFERENCE A, MARINE CORPS SYSTEMS COMMAND (MCSC) PRODUCT GROUP 12
(PG-12) HAS BEEN DESIGNATED AS THE MARINE CORPS URN MANAGER. THE
URN MANAGER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ASSIGNING AND MANAGING PERMANENT
MARINE CORPS URN ASSIGNMENTS. THE URN MANAGER IS ALSO RESPONSIBLE
FOR COORDINATING MARINE CORPS URN ASSIGNMENTS WITH THE JOINT URN
COMMUNITY.
B. PERMANENT URN ASSIGNMENTS HAVE BEEN COMPLETED AND ARE CONTAINED
IN THE MUR. CURRENT URN ASSIGNMENTS ARE DELIBERATELY MANAGED IN
ORDER TO FACILITATE JOINT INTEROPERABILITY AMONG VARIOUS SYSTEMS OF
RECORD EMPLOYING VMF MESSAGING IAW REFERENCE B. REQUESTS FOR
CHANGES TO PERMANENT URN ASSIGNMENTS SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE USMC
URN MANAGER. SPARE URN BLOCKS HAVE BEEN PROVIDED TO EACH OF THE
MEFS. EACH MEF WILL USE URNS FROM THEIR SPARE BLOCK TO CREATE
TEMPORARY ASSIGNMENTS. TEMPORARY URN ASSIGNMENTS, ONCE CREATED,
WILL BE UPLOADED BY THE DESIGNATED MEF REPRESENTATIVE INTO THE MUR.
ONLY DESIGNATED COMMAND REPRESENTATIVES WILL HAVE THE ABILITY TO
ADD, DELETE, OR CHANGE TEMPORARY URN ASSIGNMENTS.