Army tech command evaluating commercial mobile solutions
[Hat tip to John Gruber (@daringfireball) who posted this link in his blog]
U.S. Army technnology command members visited Apple’s headquarters earlier this month, as part of their current ongoing evaluation of commerical handheld solutions for the Army.
Apple game them a tour of the company’s labs, and talked about how the military is currently using a range of Apple products, according to a story posted on army.mil, the “official homepage” of the Army.
“The Army is moving away from big-green-box solutions and toward those that will adapt along with our warfighters on the battlefield,” said Maj. Gen. Nick Justice, commanding general of the Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM).
It’s all part of the march toward the Digital Army. Like everyone else, for example, the Army is exploring the impact and role of social networking.
The Apple visit was part of the Army’s “Connecting Soldiers to Digital Applications” project, intended to show the capabilities of hand-held technology in military tasks, including those in “tactical environments.” RDECOM’s Communications-Electronics Research and Development Center already has created a range of applications, including two iPhone apps in development: a counter-insurgency information collection app, and a planning-plus-social-networking tool called MilSpace.
Don’t expect either to appear in the App Store.
The RDECOM blog, Army Technology Live, released it’s own free iPhone app in February, for accessing Army technology news, social media and job postings.
