Forget about muddling through with folded paper maps and line-of-sight radio comms. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has been building a library of mission-critical apps, such as updated digital maps with interactive features, which troops on foot can access from secure Android devices.<\/p>\n
Called Transformative Apps, or TransApps, the DARPA program has fielded more than 3,000 mobile devices to Army brigades in Afghanistan and developed more than 50 apps since 2011. In addition, the agency is developing a new business model to quickly get new software updates to field.<\/p>\n
Most recently, DARPA in late October held a Geospatial Mobile Integration Technical Exchange, which drew representatives from the the military services, the Defense Department and industry. The purpose, TransApps program manager Doran Michels told reporters at a news briefing Tuesday, was to create common standards for this new \u201cfrontier space.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the course of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, top brass saw an increase in high-quality ISR products. However, \u201cground soldiers outside the wire had few tools to share information and understand their battlefield environment,\u201d Michels noted.<\/p>\n
To help rectify the situation, DARPA created in 2007 the Tactical Ground Reporting (TIGR) System, a map-based tool for company and platoons. Patrol leaders could use TIGR to print screen shots of geospatial maps before going out on missions. But if the unit was retasked in the field, those printouts were rendered useless.<\/p>\n
Likewise, the Army\u2019s canceled-then-revived Land Warrior system, which included such gear as a flip-down eye monocle for map displays, was another attempt to improve the situational awareness of dismounted troops.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut soldiers generally weren\u2019t that satisfied with the performance or the ease of use,\u201d Michels said.<\/p>\n
By 2010, DARPA started to look at secure mobile devices and military apps. Now, in a world where even Grandma plays \u201cAngry Birds\u201d on her smartphone during a trans-Atlantic flight, the idea of getting special military apps to soldiers doesn\u2019t seem too radical. But doing so came with several unique challenges<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For full article details, visit: http:\/\/bit.ly\/1UhZQ2g<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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