Many people today carry handheld computing devices to support their business, entertainment, and social needs that operate on commercial networks. The Department of Defense (DoD) is increasingly interested in having soldiers carry handheld computing devices to support their mission needs that would operate on military tactical networks. Not surprisingly, however, conventional handheld computing devices (such as iPhones or android-based smartphones) for commercial networks differ in significant ways from handheld devices for tactical networks.¹ For example, conventional devices and the software that runs on them do not provide the capabilities and security needed by military devices, nor are they configured to work over DoD tactical networks with severe bandwidth limitations. This post describes exploratory research we are conducting at the SEI to

• create software that allows soldiers to access information on a handheld device, and
• program the software to tailor the information for a given mission or situation

We are motivated by the image of a U.S. soldier on patrol, deployed abroad, and walking into an unfamiliar village. Many pieces of information would be useful to that soldier. For example, it would be useful to know who the village elders are and to have pictures to identify them. It would be critical to have information about improvised explosive device (IED) attacks in the area. Reports detailing the results of previous contact that soldiers have had with villagers could be informative. If it’s a large village, it also would be helpful to know friendly villagers who can speak English.

Read more about SEI work in pervasive mobile computing at the SEI blog.

¹ For example, see DARPA RFP SB102-002 Handheld Apps for Warfighters. The U.S. Army has established Mobile Application Branches at Fort Gordon (see Mobile Applications) and Ft. Lee (see Cascom is app-solutely Amazing).

² Defense News reports the U.S. Military had 6,500 UAVs in 2010 and plans to have 8,500 by 2012.