Google Android to power US Army’s first smartphone

Remember the movies like Stealth where army would employ high-end gadgets in the war field for various purposes, or the detectives of CSI and other shows snapping away pictures of the crime scenes with their smartphones? Days like this have come to a reality for the American Army. In a groundbreaking step, the US Army is to provide smartphones running on Google Android technology to the soldiers as part of their basic field kit.

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Adding up to the already abundant stack of successful ventures of Google, the US army is currently testing a prototype of Android based smartphone platform to keep soldier’s connected. This could be a major design win for Google.

The American Army is developing a software suite called the Joint Battle Command-Platform or the JBC-P handheld, which is currently being tested by the Army. This device, which was being developed by nonprofit organization MITRE, runs on Google Android mobile operating system to run on phones that the army would provide to soldiers in field for instance in Afghanistan and Iraq. Android smartphone could be used for a multitude of purposes in the battlefield, these real time applications include marking enemy locations on a GPS map for other soldiers to see and sending pictures of wounds to medical staff for first aid or possible medical instructions.

Though this smartphone is not like the sleek smartphones that are being currently commercially used, and though roughly two pounds in weight, it is still lighter than the usual bulky equipment that the soldiers have to lug around.

The US Amy already uses sophisticated communication and tactical computer systems effectively in battle but carrying a device as versatile as a modern smartphone would replace a lot of proprietary technology. This is a huge step for the government, which used custom made computers, to provide to its soldiers the smartphone which is considered as the most effective way to collect and share intelligence information, by the commercial market.

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It has been reported that army has been using customized iPods for functions such as Translation apps. Both Apple iPhone and Google Android have been in the run to be chosen as the Army's smartphone, however, Google was chosen since the computing environment in this case is meant to run on any manner of devices. The phone is to include a wide variety of tracking apps and extensive radio connectivity since the aim is to be inter-operable across the entire family of systems, which would include the platforms, the aviation, the logistics community, the tanks, the Bradleys, the handhelds, etc.

In a world where terrorists and insurgents use smartphones to effectively communicate and disrupt and destroy integrity of life, both military and civilian, it is a welcome change that armies are being provided with things that are equally or more effective than the gadgets that are being used by the enemies. However, security continues to remain an issue while providing connectivity in the low connectivity zones and this prototype is still a long way to go to be seen in action.

Source: Apple Insider