iPod touch finding new niches in Afghanistan, Iraq
By Ronald O Carlson
From displaying satellite imagery and controlling robots designed to disable bombs to language translation and bullet trajectory calculation in the field, Apple’s versatile, rugged and pleasingly cheap (by government procurement standards) “funnest iPod ever” is becoming the handheld of choice for the U.S. military, displacing hardware and software that would have cost hundreds of billions.
Newsweek is running an interesting read on the special uses American armed forces are finding for Apple’s iPod touch, which is being hailed by troops and budget planners alike.
According to Lt. Col. Jim Ross, director of the Army’s intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors operations in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, an iPod “may be all that they need.”
That said, using a commercial product in crucial military roles is a break from the past and, compared with devices built to military specifications, iPods are cheap. Specifically, our forces near and far are doing the following with Apple kit:
• The U.S. Marine Corps is funding development of an application for Apple devices that will allow soldiers to upload photographs of detained suspects, along with written reports, into a biometric database
• Vcommunicator is now being issued to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, which produces spoken and written translations of Arabic, Kurdish and two Afghan languages
• Next Wave Systems is expected to release software that will enable a soldier to snap a picture of a street sign and, in a few moments, receive intelligence uploaded by other soldiers
• Knight’s Armament is providing snipers in Iraq and Afghanistan with a “ballistics calculator” called BulletFlight
• In Sudan, American military observers are using iPods to learn the appropriate etiquette for interacting with tribal leaders.
This “consumerization of military IT” is a similar trend to what is happening enterprise computing environments where Apple’s Macintosh computers and trend iPhone have also been welcome for their ease of use and collaboration enhancing functionality. Interestingly, according to an Army official in Iraq, the iPod touch hasn’t yet been successfully hacked—it’s a matter of time, but not yet.
It’s pretty interesting that the US armed forces have switched from strategy that sought to wire virtually every aspect of the soldier and battlefield (News.com)—a much criticized effort that would have cost hundreds of billions—with custom made milspec hardware to methodology that’s almost immediately practical at a price of hundreds per fighter.
Pretty sweet, huh?
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