Log in

View Full Version : Army Goes Android!


Jon Westfall
10-30-2010, 11:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/10/special-forces-want-android-apps-for-warzone-john-maddens/' target='_blank'>http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/201...e-john-maddens/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"The Army is 20 years and a half-billion dollars into a star-crossed effort to build custom communications and digital-mapping gadgets for its soldiers. Special Operations Command, on the other hand, is taking a simpler approach: They're planning to use Android phones. Last week, the SOCOM asked coders to create a suite of applications for keeping commandos linked up while they're out on missions. The software should include chat functions, file transfers, video display and "multi-touch whiteboarding aka John Madden tool." SOCOM calls it the Tactical Situational Awareness Application Suite, or TactSA, and it has to work in low-connectivity areas - the middle-of-nowhere places you'd expect to send the military's most elite troops. It's got to be peer-to-peer, encrypted "at the application level" and able to recover from "network outages and substantial packet loss." But rather than go the Army route and custom-build hardware, SOCOM is happy to use off-the-shelf gadgetry. It's the software that interests them more."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/adt/auto/1288462322.usr7.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>I guess it's telling - first you see your brother-in-law (who is a 1LT currently in Afghanistan) using a Droid at Christmas time, and before long he's convinced his entire company to adopt Android! Seriously, Android makes a logical choice for the Army: They can control the entire operating system, since it's open source, and build exactly what they need. Not a bad idea - let the hardware be off-the-shelf, program all the software!</p>

Joel Crane
11-01-2010, 07:48 PM
My brother in law is an IT guy in the military, and I can tell that he is very frustrated with them for overlooking open-source software. All of their workstations run Windows Vista, which is sad considering that Linux is free and capable of being far more secure.

The military using Android handsets? I think it's a fantastic idea.

He too is being deployed to Iraqistan only a few days from now.

Jon Westfall
11-01-2010, 07:52 PM
My brother in law is an IT guy in the military, and I can tell that he is very frustrated with them for overlooking open-source software. All of their workstations run Windows Vista, which is sad considering that Linux is free and capable of being far more secure.

I can understand windows on a desktop simply for compatibility issues. The DoD holds MS up to some high standards in the OS so it can be used in military applications, which in a sense it can't enforce on the mobile platform unless it's built from the ground up.

Open-source, though, if entirely built and managed from the ground up, makes a pretty convincing argument as long as the overall costs don't get higher than using commercial closed-source solutions.

Jon.