By Andrew Munchbach posted Jun 30th 2012 1:36AM | Engadget
US soldiers to leverage portable battlefield network and smartphones
<a href="http://s1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/?action=view&current=2012-06-29us-army-smartphones.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/2012-06-29us-army-smartphones.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
Smartphones: the future of wartime communication? That is the goal of the US Army through
the development of its portable wireless network, dubbed Warfighter Information Network-Tactical or
WIN-T. The Army hopes to leverage WIN-T to bring near-instant digital communication to the
battlefield by outfitting soldiers with Motorola Atrix handsets running a heavily modified version of
Android.
An exposé by Wired explains that the system's main goal is information and intelligence sharing;
between both soldiers and central command. Friendly troop positions, suspicious vehicles or persons and
surveillance video from unmanned areal vehicles (UAVs) can all be mapped and shared with servicemen
and women in the field. It's been a dream of the Pentagon since the mid-nineties, but has only recently
become monetarily and technologically feasible due to advances in smartphone processing power.
It's nerdy, it's fascinating... and this is the stuff the Army is willing to talk about.
US soldiers to leverage portable battlefield network and smartphones
<a href="http://s1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/?action=view&current=2012-06-29us-army-smartphones.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/jj559/365Wildfire/2012-06-29us-army-smartphones.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>
Smartphones: the future of wartime communication? That is the goal of the US Army through
the development of its portable wireless network, dubbed Warfighter Information Network-Tactical or
WIN-T. The Army hopes to leverage WIN-T to bring near-instant digital communication to the
battlefield by outfitting soldiers with Motorola Atrix handsets running a heavily modified version of
Android.
An exposé by Wired explains that the system's main goal is information and intelligence sharing;
between both soldiers and central command. Friendly troop positions, suspicious vehicles or persons and
surveillance video from unmanned areal vehicles (UAVs) can all be mapped and shared with servicemen
and women in the field. It's been a dream of the Pentagon since the mid-nineties, but has only recently
become monetarily and technologically feasible due to advances in smartphone processing power.
It's nerdy, it's fascinating... and this is the stuff the Army is willing to talk about.
