The United States Army plans to hold desert trials next week to evaluate smartphones and tablet computers for use on the battlefield.
Apple iPhones, iPads and Google Android devices of all kinds will be part of the test, which begins Monday.
The intention behind the trials is to see if off-the-shelf devices can help deliver vital data -- surveillance video, or just cloud-based instructions -- to soldiers on the front lines.
Nathan Hodge reports in the Wall Street Journal:
The Army doesn't have a plan to give every soldier a smartphone. But Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army's vice chief of staff, recently said that if the devices proved themselves in testing, the service would "buy what we need for who needs it now."
Many of the applications the Army wants to develop—for instance, the ability to watch full-motion video shot from a drone—can already be done with equipment now in the field. The potential advantage of smartphones and tablets is their lighter weight and ease of use.
The tests will be conducted at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and Fort Bliss, Texas. They are part of a broader project to evaluate new communications equipment for military use, both from a utility standpoint and a durability one.
A few more points from the story:
But security remains a critical issue. If information is in the cloud, will warfare be conducted over the airwaves, instead of on the ground? And will missile strikes on communications towers or satellites take precedence over attacks on compounds?
For the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, these are unlikely, thanks to a considerable technological gap between the foes. But if much of the technology is available off-the-shelf, it's only a matter of time before "makeshift app" replaces "makeshift bomb" as the biggest threat to military intelligence.
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com