US Army's Special Operations switching tactical kit from Android to iPhone - report
The U.S. Army's Special Operations Command, or SOCOM, will be switching from Android to the iPhone for a situational awareness kit issued to soldiers, according to a report.
The iPhone 6s will be the centerpiece of gear dubbed the iPhone Tactical Assault Kit, a source told Military.com's DoD Buzz. The equipment is replacing the Android Tactical Assault Kit -- both systems link a smartphone to a networked radio, letting unit leaders track soldiers' positions on a map, as well as connect to intelligence and reconnaissance feeds such as video from drones.
While the Army has confirmed neither the switch nor its reasons, one explanation for it may be reliability. The particular Samsung phone used in the Android kit freezes and too often has to be restarted, the source commented. The issue is said to be especially evident when trying to view a split screen showing both a unit's route and a drone feed.
The iPhone is described as "faster," "smoother," and "seamless" by comparison, with graphics that are "clear, unbelievable."
Apple gear has been used in one form or another by the American military for years. Older models of the iPod touch, for instance, were used as computers for snipers.
The iPhone 6s will be the centerpiece of gear dubbed the iPhone Tactical Assault Kit, a source told Military.com's DoD Buzz. The equipment is replacing the Android Tactical Assault Kit -- both systems link a smartphone to a networked radio, letting unit leaders track soldiers' positions on a map, as well as connect to intelligence and reconnaissance feeds such as video from drones.
While the Army has confirmed neither the switch nor its reasons, one explanation for it may be reliability. The particular Samsung phone used in the Android kit freezes and too often has to be restarted, the source commented. The issue is said to be especially evident when trying to view a split screen showing both a unit's route and a drone feed.
The iPhone is described as "faster," "smoother," and "seamless" by comparison, with graphics that are "clear, unbelievable."
Apple gear has been used in one form or another by the American military for years. Older models of the iPod touch, for instance, were used as computers for snipers.
Comments
--Yes, there was a hint of sarcasm but I do see this rumor as being helpful to Apple especially since Samsung is NOT an American company and there still are some procurement rules that have to be followed when buying any non-American product although I bet the US government sees Samsung as a US company because everyone knows Apple is just a niche company so those buy American rules don't matter. There are also sole-source and no-substitute procurement rules. I wonder how Samsung beat out Apple, probably only on cost but when has that ever stopped the military on anything?
http://www.wow.com/wiki/Nett_Warrior (shows some history)
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In July 2013, the Army installed the Samsung Galaxy Note II into Nett Warrior as the system's end user device. Each Galaxy is bought at the commercial price of $700 per phone, substantially lower than if the Army had to procure devices from contractors who would develop their own original devices.
On 14 October 2014, the U.S. Army Geospatial Center recommended AFRL's Android Tactical Assault Kit (ATAK), over the world-leader Esri's Commercial Joint Mapping Tool Kit (CJMTK), NASA's World Wind, and the Army's Globe Engine (AGE) for map engine driving the Nett Warrior End User Device. ATAK was selected due to similar capabilities with CJMTK, similar risk, and less than one-third the total cost.
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So much for those people saying Apple products are overpriced.
But hey, whatever greases the wheel.
Let the terrorists and foreign armies use cheap and unreliable Android trash, while our Apple using soldiers blow them all to smithereens.
Apple could even make a special, heavy duty, stronger built iPhone, specially developed for the US military. Instead of Rose Gold, how about stealth black or a camo phone?
I'd actually love a stealth black iPhone for myself.
A lot of the high cost of dedicated military kit is cooked into the equipment by a combination of low (in relation to commercial products) production volumes, and the (really) high cost of the procurement process itself.
Stories about things like $1K hammers tend to leave out the mandated testing process (you have to develop it, and the test equipment, and the verification process, and *everything* has to be documented, with an attached paper trail). All this drives up the cost of a product that might never see production numbers north of a couple of thousand.
One favorite from times past was a lot of churn about the cost of a coffee urn for, IIRC, the Lockheed P-3 Orion naval patrol plane. Hey, you try working on an 18 hour patrol over the north Atlantic without hot coffee, or food for that matter.
Some bright spark got the numbers and went quite non-linear back in the '80s. Why, that $40K urn could easily replace it with a coffee pot from Costco for $50, tops. What were they thinking about? Lockheed was ripping us off!!
Well, the whole intensive procurement process (paperwork/test process/testing/validation/more paperwork) spread out over a few hundred aircraft. Oh, and the aircraft electrical buss(es) may or may not provide 120vac/60Hz directly. I vaguely recall one business jet that the ground school I worked at used had a couple of power busses, one providing 28v, another was at 400Hz. (Hey, it's been almost 50 years.)
Someone I used to work with did a bit of digging, and noted that the Boeing 747 that his company operated used coffee urns that cost right about $40K, each, in the mid-70s.
There's waste and excess cost in the system, but it's not *all* waste, and at least some of the people working in the system are definitely trying to reduce those costs.