airdog07
December 17th, 2011, 05:35 PM
IPhones Guide Artillery as Pentagon Plans App StoreBy Hugo MillerDec 15, 2011 5:01 AM GMT
At Camp Blessing in Afghanistan (http://topics.bloomberg.com/afghanistan/)’sPech Valley, some American soldiers played “Angry Birds” ontheir iPhones when off-duty. Jonathan Springer decided to puthis device to a different use: building an app to help fight theTaliban.
“I wanted to give something back to soldiers that mighthelp save their lives,” Springer, 32, said in an interview fromhis base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina (http://topics.bloomberg.com/north-carolina/).
The result is Tactical Nav (http://www.tacticalnav.com/), an iPhone application the U.S.Army captain built with $30,000 of his savings and a maxed-outcredit card (http://topics.bloomberg.com/credit-card/) a year ago. The $5.99 app uses GPS technology andthe iPhone’s camera to chart coordinates and guide artilleryfire. It has been downloaded about 8,000 times by U.S., Canadianand Australian soldiers, as well as hunters and hikers, Springersaid. From e-mails he has received from soldiers who have goneon patrol with it, the app has been used in both combat andtraining, Springer said.
If Teri Takai gets her way, American soldiers, sailors andmarines may all soon be able to download Tactical Nav and othermilitary programs through a dedicated U.S. Defense Departmentapp store. Takai, the department’s chief information officer,wants to build a secure network of smartphone apps to helpsoldiers fight in new ways, from more precise maps to bettermanuals. If security challenges get resolved, the project willresult in a revenue source for app developers and a potentialboon for iPhones, iPads and Android devices.
“We would like a full range of devices to be able tosecurely operate with a DoD app store, but also be able toutilize commercial app stores,” Takai said in an interview in asmall, windowless conference room at the Pentagon in Arlington,Virginia.
Combat Innovation
The Pentagon, whose research arm spawned the first versionof the Internet in the 1960s, is now turning to technologiesdeveloped by civilians as it seeks to make its fighting forcenimbler. Takai’s challenge is to create an environment in whichsoldiers can improvise on devices like Apple Inc.’s iPhone andiPad (AAPL) (http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/AAPL:US) without letting the Pentagon’s security standards slip.
Soldiers “in a fight innovate and use all the technologiesthey have,” said Kenneth Minihan, who was director of theNational Security Agency from 1996 to 1999. “It’s a verynatural phenomenon to come out of troops in combat.”
Minihan runs Paladin Capital Group, a Washington-basedcompany that invests in security-technology companies includingsoftware maker Fixmo Inc. He said the Pentagon is right toembrace these new innovations.
http://www.bloomberg.com/image/iMzTDN5s6ciU.jpg (http://www.bloomberg.com/photo/pentagon-app-store-/-iMzTDN5s6ciU.html)
Source: Tactical Nav Tactical Nav's interface is shown in a screen grab provided to the media on Wednesday... Read More (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-15/soldiers-iphones-guide-artillery-fire-as-pentagon-plans-app-store-tech.html#)
“If you go back to the Cold War, it was government-developed technology that we would introduce into the commercialsector,” Minihan said. “Today most of those technologies comefrom the private sector and get introduced to the public sector-- it’s the reverse.”
Android Rising
A wide selection of consumer apps has fueled the popularityof Apple’s iPhone and devices built on Google Inc. (GOOG) (http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/GOOG:US)’s Androidsoftware at the expense of Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) (http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/RIM:CN)’s BlackBerry,which offers fewer apps. Faced with demands to reduce costs,government agencies are looking at adding security software tomake Apple and Android devices safe enough to let employees usetheir own phones and tablets at work.
Takai says for the moment the Defense Department willcontinue to issue only BlackBerrys, the devices that rose toprominence in Washington (http://topics.bloomberg.com/washington/) a decade ago because of the securitythey offer. If Apple and Android devices can be built to be moresecure, then the Pentagon is open to the notion of deployingthose alongside BlackBerrys, particularly if that will savemoney, she said.
IPads for Marines
“In the immediate future, we’re not envisioning a bring-your-own device” policy, she said. However, “anytime we canintroduce a competitive environment for anything we buy, thatgives us an opportunity to make it most cost-effective.”
Contracts to supply the U.S. military or government withiPhones and iPads could be a source of additional revenue forApple. There are about 650,000 BlackBerry users within the U.S.government and RIM has earned at least $395 million in salesfrom the government in the past decade, including $84 million sofar in 2011, based on contracting data compiled by BloombergGovernment.
The Pentagon is running test programs with Marine Corpsaircrews using the iPad for mapping, while the Army isevaluating the iPhone as a training tool. Still, getting iPhoneand Android approved for official Defense Department use willprobably take “years rather than months,” even if the devicesare already being used on the battlefield, Minihan said.
That pace of change is frustrating, Springer said.
“It’s great that the Pentagon is moving in thisdirection,” he said. “I just wish it were happening quicker.”
Tackling Bureaucracy
After Springer’s app was introduced in January 2011, thegovernment asked to see the code behind it, Springer said. Hedeclined and said he has since heard little from the government,which he said he interprets as a tacit “green light” to keepselling it.
“People have told me, ‘We like what you’re doing and theinitiative to change the bureaucratic system, but we can’t helpyou,’” said Springer, who continues to serve as a captain atFort Bragg. He declined to give names of officials who havegiven him the feedback.
Knight’s Armament Co. (http://www.knightarmco.com/), based in Titusville, Florida (http://topics.bloomberg.com/florida/), hasbeen supplying rifles and night-vision scopes to the U.S. Armyand Marines for three decades. Now it’s also promotingBulletFlight, a $30 ballistics app that incorporates theinclinometer and weather apps built into an iPhone to helpsoldiers calibrate their weapons more quickly.
Military officials have told Knight’s that it’s accurate towithin 0.1 percent of the larger, bulkier ballistics computersthat cost 10 times as much, Trey Knight, the company’s marketingdirector, said in an interview. Still, that doesn’t mean theproduct has received official endorsement from the Pentagon.
‘Vulnerability’
The Pentagon’s Takai says that balancing soldiers’ needswith security policy is one of her biggest challenges. Beforejoining the Pentagon last year, Takai was CIO of the state ofCalifornia (http://topics.bloomberg.com/california/). She previously worked in state government inMichigan, and before that, spent 30 years at Ford Motor Co. (F) (http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/F:US)
“You have a senior person say ‘Well, gee, I have an iPadat home and love it and don’t tell me that with today’stechnology you can’t make it work,” she said. “And I have togo back and say ‘Well sir, ma’am, yes in fact there arecircumstances where that commercial technology doesn’t fit withour security requirements.’”
The open-source Android operating system, for instance, hadan almost sixfold increase in threats such as spyware andviruses since July, Juniper Networks Inc. (JNPR) (http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/JNPR:US) said last month.
‘Great Opportunities’
Takai said she is careful about systems that don’treplicate RIM, which operates secure servers for each governmentclient and gives them the encryption keys to those servers.
“They’re software solutions and the challenge is they havea certain vulnerability” that RIM doesn’t have, she said.
To date, the encryption used in the BlackBerry and RIM’sPlayBook tablet is the only one certified as secure by thegovernment’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (http://topics.bloomberg.com/national-institute-of-standards-and-technology/),which establishes what can used by federal employees.Independent labs are testing the encryption of devices includingiPhone and iPad under the guidance of NIST.
The Defense Information Systems Agency (http://www.disa.mil/) establishesguidelines for military devices in collaboration with NIST. Theonly smartphone it has endorsed for use on defense networks isthe BlackBerry.
Apple and Android devices are something the Pentagon can’tignore because of their surging popularity with youngerstaffers, Takai said. Android’s share of the global smartphonemarket share more than doubled to 53 percent in the thirdquarter as RIM fell to 11 percent from 15 percent, according toresearch firm Gartner Inc. Meanwhile the iPad is outselling thePlayBook by about 100 to 1.
“We have young folks that want to bring them into thisplace,” Takai said. “We see great opportunities for thesedevices in terms of being able to get applications much morequickly in the hands of our war fighters. As long as we can doit in a secure way, it’s another communication mechanism thatwould be very beneficial.”
At Camp Blessing in Afghanistan (http://topics.bloomberg.com/afghanistan/)’sPech Valley, some American soldiers played “Angry Birds” ontheir iPhones when off-duty. Jonathan Springer decided to puthis device to a different use: building an app to help fight theTaliban.
“I wanted to give something back to soldiers that mighthelp save their lives,” Springer, 32, said in an interview fromhis base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina (http://topics.bloomberg.com/north-carolina/).
The result is Tactical Nav (http://www.tacticalnav.com/), an iPhone application the U.S.Army captain built with $30,000 of his savings and a maxed-outcredit card (http://topics.bloomberg.com/credit-card/) a year ago. The $5.99 app uses GPS technology andthe iPhone’s camera to chart coordinates and guide artilleryfire. It has been downloaded about 8,000 times by U.S., Canadianand Australian soldiers, as well as hunters and hikers, Springersaid. From e-mails he has received from soldiers who have goneon patrol with it, the app has been used in both combat andtraining, Springer said.
If Teri Takai gets her way, American soldiers, sailors andmarines may all soon be able to download Tactical Nav and othermilitary programs through a dedicated U.S. Defense Departmentapp store. Takai, the department’s chief information officer,wants to build a secure network of smartphone apps to helpsoldiers fight in new ways, from more precise maps to bettermanuals. If security challenges get resolved, the project willresult in a revenue source for app developers and a potentialboon for iPhones, iPads and Android devices.
“We would like a full range of devices to be able tosecurely operate with a DoD app store, but also be able toutilize commercial app stores,” Takai said in an interview in asmall, windowless conference room at the Pentagon in Arlington,Virginia.
Combat Innovation
The Pentagon, whose research arm spawned the first versionof the Internet in the 1960s, is now turning to technologiesdeveloped by civilians as it seeks to make its fighting forcenimbler. Takai’s challenge is to create an environment in whichsoldiers can improvise on devices like Apple Inc.’s iPhone andiPad (AAPL) (http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/AAPL:US) without letting the Pentagon’s security standards slip.
Soldiers “in a fight innovate and use all the technologiesthey have,” said Kenneth Minihan, who was director of theNational Security Agency from 1996 to 1999. “It’s a verynatural phenomenon to come out of troops in combat.”
Minihan runs Paladin Capital Group, a Washington-basedcompany that invests in security-technology companies includingsoftware maker Fixmo Inc. He said the Pentagon is right toembrace these new innovations.
http://www.bloomberg.com/image/iMzTDN5s6ciU.jpg (http://www.bloomberg.com/photo/pentagon-app-store-/-iMzTDN5s6ciU.html)
Source: Tactical Nav Tactical Nav's interface is shown in a screen grab provided to the media on Wednesday... Read More (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-15/soldiers-iphones-guide-artillery-fire-as-pentagon-plans-app-store-tech.html#)
“If you go back to the Cold War, it was government-developed technology that we would introduce into the commercialsector,” Minihan said. “Today most of those technologies comefrom the private sector and get introduced to the public sector-- it’s the reverse.”
Android Rising
A wide selection of consumer apps has fueled the popularityof Apple’s iPhone and devices built on Google Inc. (GOOG) (http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/GOOG:US)’s Androidsoftware at the expense of Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) (http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/RIM:CN)’s BlackBerry,which offers fewer apps. Faced with demands to reduce costs,government agencies are looking at adding security software tomake Apple and Android devices safe enough to let employees usetheir own phones and tablets at work.
Takai says for the moment the Defense Department willcontinue to issue only BlackBerrys, the devices that rose toprominence in Washington (http://topics.bloomberg.com/washington/) a decade ago because of the securitythey offer. If Apple and Android devices can be built to be moresecure, then the Pentagon is open to the notion of deployingthose alongside BlackBerrys, particularly if that will savemoney, she said.
IPads for Marines
“In the immediate future, we’re not envisioning a bring-your-own device” policy, she said. However, “anytime we canintroduce a competitive environment for anything we buy, thatgives us an opportunity to make it most cost-effective.”
Contracts to supply the U.S. military or government withiPhones and iPads could be a source of additional revenue forApple. There are about 650,000 BlackBerry users within the U.S.government and RIM has earned at least $395 million in salesfrom the government in the past decade, including $84 million sofar in 2011, based on contracting data compiled by BloombergGovernment.
The Pentagon is running test programs with Marine Corpsaircrews using the iPad for mapping, while the Army isevaluating the iPhone as a training tool. Still, getting iPhoneand Android approved for official Defense Department use willprobably take “years rather than months,” even if the devicesare already being used on the battlefield, Minihan said.
That pace of change is frustrating, Springer said.
“It’s great that the Pentagon is moving in thisdirection,” he said. “I just wish it were happening quicker.”
Tackling Bureaucracy
After Springer’s app was introduced in January 2011, thegovernment asked to see the code behind it, Springer said. Hedeclined and said he has since heard little from the government,which he said he interprets as a tacit “green light” to keepselling it.
“People have told me, ‘We like what you’re doing and theinitiative to change the bureaucratic system, but we can’t helpyou,’” said Springer, who continues to serve as a captain atFort Bragg. He declined to give names of officials who havegiven him the feedback.
Knight’s Armament Co. (http://www.knightarmco.com/), based in Titusville, Florida (http://topics.bloomberg.com/florida/), hasbeen supplying rifles and night-vision scopes to the U.S. Armyand Marines for three decades. Now it’s also promotingBulletFlight, a $30 ballistics app that incorporates theinclinometer and weather apps built into an iPhone to helpsoldiers calibrate their weapons more quickly.
Military officials have told Knight’s that it’s accurate towithin 0.1 percent of the larger, bulkier ballistics computersthat cost 10 times as much, Trey Knight, the company’s marketingdirector, said in an interview. Still, that doesn’t mean theproduct has received official endorsement from the Pentagon.
‘Vulnerability’
The Pentagon’s Takai says that balancing soldiers’ needswith security policy is one of her biggest challenges. Beforejoining the Pentagon last year, Takai was CIO of the state ofCalifornia (http://topics.bloomberg.com/california/). She previously worked in state government inMichigan, and before that, spent 30 years at Ford Motor Co. (F) (http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/F:US)
“You have a senior person say ‘Well, gee, I have an iPadat home and love it and don’t tell me that with today’stechnology you can’t make it work,” she said. “And I have togo back and say ‘Well sir, ma’am, yes in fact there arecircumstances where that commercial technology doesn’t fit withour security requirements.’”
The open-source Android operating system, for instance, hadan almost sixfold increase in threats such as spyware andviruses since July, Juniper Networks Inc. (JNPR) (http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/JNPR:US) said last month.
‘Great Opportunities’
Takai said she is careful about systems that don’treplicate RIM, which operates secure servers for each governmentclient and gives them the encryption keys to those servers.
“They’re software solutions and the challenge is they havea certain vulnerability” that RIM doesn’t have, she said.
To date, the encryption used in the BlackBerry and RIM’sPlayBook tablet is the only one certified as secure by thegovernment’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (http://topics.bloomberg.com/national-institute-of-standards-and-technology/),which establishes what can used by federal employees.Independent labs are testing the encryption of devices includingiPhone and iPad under the guidance of NIST.
The Defense Information Systems Agency (http://www.disa.mil/) establishesguidelines for military devices in collaboration with NIST. Theonly smartphone it has endorsed for use on defense networks isthe BlackBerry.
Apple and Android devices are something the Pentagon can’tignore because of their surging popularity with youngerstaffers, Takai said. Android’s share of the global smartphonemarket share more than doubled to 53 percent in the thirdquarter as RIM fell to 11 percent from 15 percent, according toresearch firm Gartner Inc. Meanwhile the iPad is outselling thePlayBook by about 100 to 1.
“We have young folks that want to bring them into thisplace,” Takai said. “We see great opportunities for thesedevices in terms of being able to get applications much morequickly in the hands of our war fighters. As long as we can doit in a secure way, it’s another communication mechanism thatwould be very beneficial.”