iPhone Revolution In US Army

[Richard]

Interesting article.

An Army pilot program is putting smart phones in the hands of soldiers as a warfighting tool. But the project challenges traditional Army command culture as well as the military industry.

Richard

How An iPhone Revolution Could Turn The Army Upside-down
CSM, 15 Nov 2011

When Michael McCarthy started giving out iPhones to soldiers training for war in the Texas high desert, there was speculation that it might be some sort of recruiting ploy.

"There were a lot of people who thought this was a marketing thing – we're going to give you a cellphone if you enlist," says Mr. McCarthy, director of operations for the Army's Brigade Modernization Command.

But that was the furthest thing from his mind. Instead, he was hoping to recast how the Army thinks about technology.

It was a simple idea – allowing soldiers to use the smart phones they're familiar with to be more connected on the battlefield, whether to check maps or relay information. But it has profound implications for the military.

For the soldiers, the smart phones have already begun to unleash torrents of ingenuity, with some designing new soldier-friendly applications, such as links to the video feed of the base security camera.

For the Army, the smart phone pilot program points to a culture shift that would not only put new streams of intelligence into the hands of soldiers in the field but also give them the chance to evaluate that data – blurring the lines between officers and those they command. And it is sending shivers though the defense industry, which has long had a monopoly on providing military technology.

But to McCarthy, the Texas experiment has been too intriguing to ignore. "An 18-year-old kid has always had access to a smart phone," he says. "So we have the technology that the young soldiers are very, very familiar with."

That means soldiers can adapt them in ways that Army officials might not have imagined previously – and at less cost than the "exquisite" technologies exhaustively developed and produced by the defense industry.

Made-to-order military apps

Almost as soon as his unit began getting smart phones to test in the field, Spc. Nicholas Johnson began designing apps at the request of his fellow soldiers. One app took video feeds from a camera designed to secure the base perimeter and sent it to soldiers' smart phones.

Designing that app also marked an important "proof of concept," Johnson says. "You could in fact very easily and quickly push" video feeds from Predator drones, for example, to soldiers "who can use and digest" that information.

To some officers, the specialist's app might seem like a challenge to their authority. "There's a school of thought that information is power – that if I have that information, and you don't, I have the power," McCarthy says.

Yet increasingly, thinking among officers and Pentagon officials, too, has been changing. Johnson's company commander, Capt. Scott Dewitt, actually challenged Johnson to design other apps that he hopes will help troops on the ground in Afghanistan.

His first assignment to Johnson: Take local census data gathered by US military intelligence officers and make it readily available for soldiers when they visit villages. "When they go and meet with someone, how do we make it so they know this is really the house? This is really the right guy?" Dewitt asks.

The app would include photographs of local villagers, as well as information such as "names, sons' names, tribes, and family," Dewitt adds. He imagined being able to send a squad leader into a town. If "he took a picture and moved on, even though I wasn't with him, I could watch him on a map, and watch the information come in."

Johnson designed the app in 10 hours.

As commanding officers like Dewitt notice the aptitude of soldiers like Johnson, they are enlisting their help to design more apps – to help submit a status report, order a medical evacuation, or call for artillery fire. For his part, McCarthy sees overwhelming positives in distributing smart phones to soldiers.

First, he found – to his surprise – that off-the-shelf smart phones are virtually combat-ready. Initially, he was told, "You can't buy commercial phones. They're too fragile," McCarthy recalls.

But over the course of 18 months, he put 1,200 smart phones through "some of the most rugged conditions you can imagine." He had anticipated about a 10 percent annual attrition rate but found that only two stopped working. One was dropped, the other run over by a Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected vehicle.

"So we don't have to spend $2,000 'hardening' the phone. If soldiers recognize the utility and value of this equipment, they'll protect it like their weapon," McCarthy says. "The other thing is that if it breaks, or is damaged, or lost – OK, fine, we don't have a huge capital investment in it. You just buy a replacement."

In addition, using commercially available technology allows the Pentagon to stay at the cutting edge more easily. "The velocity of change in the cellphone industry is so fast that by the time we went through the normal Army acquisition process of seven years, well – cellphone technology supersedes it six months after the phone you buy was released," says McCarthy. "What we're looking at is how do you stay current?"

More affordable, too

That brings McCarthy to what he thinks is perhaps the biggest advantage. "How do you provide the best technology you can afford? Afford – that's a key term," McCarthy says. "In the past, we'd go to industry and say, 'This is what we want.' But that was a lot more expensive."

By contrast, if you buy commercially available equipment, the mobile-phone industry pays for the research and development costs, not the military.

These changes haven't been popular, however, among some defense contractors "that took us off of the Christmas card lists in the acquisitions community," McCarthy says.

And even after making the military's needs clear, particularly in a time of budget crisis, some companies interested in providing technology for the Pentagon aren't always quick to catch on. "I told one company that the smart phone must have both cell and Wi-Fi. The company came back and said, 'We believe you only need Wi-Fi, and it's only going to cost you $1.2 million,' " says McCarthy.

"And I said, 'Thank you for your interest in national defense.' "

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Militar...my-upside-down

[SF18C]

When a good idea bumps up against the DIACAP.

Bottom line, the bureaucracy of the Army’s IA folks will kill this imitative as it takes too long to properly accredit "smart phones" that by the time they have went thru the full process (or what I call the fool process) it is outdated and has to begin again! I see this every day, Iphones, Androids, Ipads, Wi-FI/3G/4G tablets...we just can't get them on the NIPR net so they end up being used on the commercial internet...OPSEC and FOUO be dammed! RIM’s Blackberrys are so “capability restricted” that I don’t even consider it a smart phones…just a cell phone with email.

[Streck-Fu]

Thank you for posting the article. It reinforces the idea of some things we are looking to develop.

[mugwump]

IT, whether corporate, gov or mil, is in for a rude awakening. The current generation has been wired-in their whole lives and are aghast when they see the crappy systems, working practices and apps in current use. They know that there are better ways and are more than happy to use them. Even the slackers are adept at circumventing IP blocks and other security measures and the info on how to do it goes viral at the speed of light. IT is going to have to go into full-Monty punitive-authoritarian mode or adapt. I suspect they'll try the former before accepting the latter.

[Richard]

One of my biggest concerns, along with systems compatability and OPSEC, over this 'e-free market' approach parallels the current 'citogenesis' trend encountered everywhere on the Internet - will the DOD need its own 'Snopes' now?

And so it goes...

Richard

[SF18C]

Or as I have always said...we spend a whole lot of time and money securing an unsecure network!!!

[bravo22b]

Well, it is starting to catch on some other places in the Army already. 1/507th has an Iphone and Droid app for JM's and JM students. It can be found on their webpage on the Ft. Benning web site (which totally sucks, BTW, not surprisingly).

I downloaded it to my phone. It is huge (451 MB) but pretty well done and has a the relevant reference material as well as audio files of the pre-jump sequence. Maybe not something you want on your phone 24/7 hogging up space, but definitely handy for the upcoming JM student.

Guess I'll be listening to the pre-jump audio in my car on the way there.

[lindy]

As a 35-series, I think this is a very bad idea for us but I hope our enemies embrace the concept with open arms.

[bubba]

Kinda reminds me of a rule I read somewhere on a poster......... "Bull Shit at the speed of light is still BULL SHIT"

[Mr Furious]

Great thread. Richard, thanks for starting it.

This is happening. It is also part of a training initiative for ALC 2015. Got a good brief at Benning on its development earlier in the year.

For security – it already is, it’s just not completely rolled out as it’s going through approvals. Fixmo already manages Autoberry and Sentinel for the POTUS, etc. If it’s any indicator on the way things are going, one of the main guys at RIM left last month and joined Fixmo. The death of the Blackberry is very near and Android based systems will be the way ahead. Fixmo licensed NSA technology to do this through the tech transfer program. Check this out, and also look at Sentinel while your at the page as it gives a good overview. http://fixmo.com/fixmo-launches-safezone

Army use: http://www.androidauthority.com/u-s-...es-soon-33588/

Why wouldn’t you put one in every soldiers hands? Think about something as simple as this translation app from the link below – this is still in alpha phase and has a long way to go, but think of the potential. Wife spoke French and we tested out; it worked perfectly. Urdu, Haitian Creole, 50 other languages preloaded and around a dozen or so loaded and released for “conversation mode” as of two weeks ago. Hard to beat the price of this terp…free:
http://www.androidauthority.com/goog...olyglot-27143/

My .02 - this is only one app when we can harness thousands of uses at once in a hand-held lightweight device. Need to embrace it as the way ahead and develop it the way we need it.

[Richard]

1SG: Sir, what are we gonna do with PFC Smedlap?

CO CDR: OK...what's Smedlap's prob now, Top?

1SG: Well, sir, he's reported losing another iPhone...and his PSG and I think he may be selling them for cash to date that new dancer down at the Shiny Knob that all the troops think is so hot.

CO CDR: S**t!!!!!!

And so it goes...

Richard

[Dozer523]

Have you ever watched people using smart phones in a crosswalk?
Is that what we really want on the battlefield?

When the EMP goes off, look up and around. I'll be the guy with a paper map.

[Mr Furious]

they're here to stay and can't dial the clock back three years, so we might as well use them to their fullest and figure a way to incorporate them. hands free, fully interoperable, secure, and with all the info you need would be a good way ahead.

when the emp hits lets hope we're not in an aircraft...I'm going down with the ship

[ZonieDiver]

Originally Posted by Mr Furious

they're here to stay and can't dial the clock back three years, so we might as well use them to their fullest and figure a way to incorporate them. hands free, fully interoperable, secure, and with all the info you need would be a good way ahead.

when the emp hits lets hope we're not in an aircraft...I'm going down with the ship

I just hope that if we integrate them into usage, we also train for "back-up"! I remember when my younger daughter was considering enlisting in the Army, and I was conversing with the CPT in charge of the station. He had been the Plt Ldr of a Mortar Platoon. He said they didn't know how to use a "whiz wheel" if the computers shut down. EMP would be very bad in that case.

I fear that the "smart" stuff will become THE answer... and being too dependent on technology has some big setbacks for this FOG.