Realizing the importance of digital information exchange, the First Army Brigade of US is going to carry Digital Applications (Connecting Soldier’s to Digital Applications – CSDA), network equipments, tablets, e-readers and pico projectors with them by this February. DARPA had put out RFIs earlier this year aiming to develop military applications and application store for iOS and Android.
The Army has plans to issue Common Access Card (ID cards to log on to DoD computers and networks) readers for iPhone in Januray and for Android in April, Rickey Smith of the Army Capabilities Integration Center stated that they hadn’t fixed any hardware brand yet and they are open to use Palm Trios, the Android, iPhone or whatever else befitting and reliable for the purpose.
Michael Vane, director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center (ARCIC) said the Army would distribute these smartphones like any other gadget a soldier receives and optionally if the solder is willing , he can make it a piece of equipment in his clothing bag. Development efforts are going on to harness smart phones to revolutionize the way of using it at all kind of critical occasions that a solder is supposed to face