Technology
U.S. Army may soon equip troops with smartphones.For U.S. Army troops, smartphones could become requisite field gear, along with boots, guns and ammunition.
“We’re looking at an assortment of devices,” McCarthy said. “All the phones we’ve tested are pretty good.”Mazzanti expects the Army will anoint two mobile operating systems for official use. That way, they can minimize software development needs while still offering variety, which could defend against cyberattacks targeted at a specific type of software platform.
Army software engineers have developed a way for applications to be ported between the two platforms with minimal effort, officials said. Other apps are being coded as mobile-optimized Web pages, they said.”It’s a computer; it’s a display unit; it’s a video-out unit,” he said. “Since it is a computer-based utility in a 7-ounce package, we just started realizing there was a vast amount of potential.”
“Today, we don’t have the level of encryption that we would need to take (a phone) overseas and fully integrate it into our mission-command systems,” Mazzanti said. Still, “there could be some limited deployments even this year, tied to tactical radios that supply the encryption that’s needed.”
In tandem with the smartphone and tablet program, the Army also is testing gear that allows operators to deploy a makeshift cell network. The “cell tower in a suitcase,” which creates a limited-range wireless network, would be used when service is unreliable or likely to attract unwanted listeners.
