Feral Jundi

   This is cool.  Thanks to David for giving me the heads up on this one.  All I have to say is, ‘cry havoc, and let loose the mobile apps of war’. lol It is about damn time and I look forward to other interesting tools to pop up.

   The big one here, is encryption.  If we are to learn anything at all in this war, and of the wars of history, is never underestimate the enemy.  They have iPhones and computers too, and more than likely they will try to crack this stuff, much like they hacked the drones. Hell, they will just download these mobile apps off of iTunes and just use them for their own little private war.

    All in all though, this is good, and I think as soon as the industry gets revved up for this stuff, there will be some competition over the market share, and only the best and most secure applications will win. I know my iPhone and the legions of other contractor’s iPhones and Blackberries will be hungry for anything that comes up. –Matt

—————————————————————–

One Force Tracker for iPhone.

The iPhone Goes to War

December 16, 2009

By ROY FURCHGOTT

One Force Tracker, iPhone software from Raytheon.

Is the iPhone going to war?

On Wednesday at the 2009 Intelligence Warfighting Summit in Tucson, Raytheon, the military contractor, announced an iPhone application that tracks friends and foes, shows their positions on live, real time maps and provides secure communications.

Called the One Force Tracker, the Raytheon iPhone software can also be used by first responders like police, firemen and emergency medical technicians.

The app works on a standard iPhone, said J Smart, chief technology officer for Raytheon’s Intelligence and Information Systems. “We are really delighted to be leveraging Apple’s innovation.”

The adaptation of the iPhone to military use is somewhat unusual, as technology more often trickles from the military to the consumer market. But this is a rare case of consumer hardware and software concepts being adapted for military use.

For instance, crowdsourcing, which has volunteers use cellphones to report real-time traffic flow, could be adapted to turn each soldier into a reporting unit, delivering real-time data about position and status.

Communications resemble social sites like Facebook, in which your friends would be represented by a military unit and could be used to track the position of, and communicate with, other units.

Maps with an overlay of points of interest are familiar to every GPS user. The Raytheon app would use the same concept, but points of interest might be known sniper sites or safe fallback positions.

Field information would be transmitted to a central computer that would crunch the data, update it and push it back out to the soldiers. “This is hypothetical, but if there is a building with known terrorist activities, it could automatically be pushed to the phone when the soldiers get near that area,” said Mr. Smart.

Live information could also be used to reduce tactical errors and friendly fire incidents. “If there was another platoon that was supposed to arrive, and they were delayed or ahead of schedule, you could adapt your plan,” said Mr. Smart. “If one of the units you are counting on is redirected, you know that in real time.”

Mr. Smart also said that Raytheon was developing sensors that could be attached to phones so that they would serve other purposes. He declined to give specifics, however mobile phones have been outfitted as portable ultrasound machines, which would be useful for battlefield medicine.

Although the application that Raytheon has developed will work with an off-the-shelf iPhone, the company concedes that there would have to be alterations for the battlefield.

One iPhone limitation to be addressed is that it only carries out one function at a time unlike competing systems from Palm and Google, which can run several concurrently. If a soldier is to have position automatically reported, the GPS will have to run at the same time as other applications. Mr. Smart said it would be an easy adaptation to make. “Underneath the iPhone is a Mac OS X operating system, which is based on Unix, which gives us Unix multitasking,” he said.

But that raises another issue. Apple limits multitasking because it empties the batteries quickly. Because the iPhone doesn’t have a replaceable battery, a fresh one can’t be popped in when power gets low. Mr. Smart said that Raytheon may address that through a ruggedized phone case that would accommodate a larger battery.

Mobile phones are also known to be vulnerable to hacking attacks. Mr. Smart said that some safeguards were built in to the software, but especially sensitive transmissions could be passed through a more sophisticated scrambler that it would dock with.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

Raytheon is developing other iPhone apps as well. It has also demonstrated an application that would serve to train air-traffic controllers. It would not completely replace current training, but would build skills in recalling aircraft and terrain, visual scanning, on-the-fly mathematics and rule-based decision-making, skills that also are used frequently by gamers.

Story here.

——————————————————————

Raytheon to Bring Powerful Mobile Apps to Military and Government Users

12/21/2009

Raytheon has designed and will deploy new applications for power users of Apple handheld devices who conduct business on the front lines of the battlefield and in aviation safety.

Raytheon, a defense technology innovator, is showcasing its role as a high-end software supplier and systems integrator to address a rise in demand for custom mobile applications running over secure networks to Apple’s® iPhone™ and iPod touch™ products.

More specifically, Raytheon is developing:

• Solutions specially designed for iPhone and iPod touch that can be used in military, tactical intelligence, law enforcement, and public safety environments where access to live, real-time information is essential. Among the offerings envisioned: A new situational awareness application based on military messaging standards that provides multimedia access, audio and textual points of interest, free text messaging, collaborative planning, spot reports, and call for emergency or fire.

• Training modules running on iPhone that allow air traffic controllers to practice aircraft vectoring and separation exercises on the small screen and at their convenience outside of traditional classroom training environments. Raytheon’s team on the FAA’s Air Traffic Control Optimum Training Solutions contract is using the solution as part of its strategy to transform air traffic control instructors from controllers to educators and to train them on how to reach the next generation.

Raytheon’s approach has made it a magnet for a diverse range of military and non-military customers seeking to create and deploy innovative solutions using the latest portable devices.

Raytheon will demonstrate the latest in mission software applications during the 2009 Intelligence Warfighting SummitDec. 14-16 in Tucson, Ariz. Visit booth #220.

Story