Actually the uid is a special tagging system used in USA for defense objects identification and marking for overall tracking. Later the defense objects used outside USA and in NATO required more collaboration and data synchronization then the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has introduced a new set of UID protocols to make the defense inventory in complete sync with various countries and organisation.

The popularity of UID has caught attention of allied nations and UK also has it's own UID sets. You can think of UID as barcode mark on the equipment and parts used in defense organizations.

USA has very robust business organizations specially dealing with the UID matters.

Lastly a quiz, Is there any relation between the UID of India and America? You know Aadhaar was initially UID card which later re-branded .