The day of military smart phones nears

of the more popular models).

Smart phones are particularly popular with businesses, where most of them are used. About a third of business users let their smart phone replace their laptop at least some of the time, and many business users are pushing for smart phones powerful enough to replace their laptops a lot more often.

This is where the troops want to go. Laptops have become increasingly common on the battlefield in the past decade, but laptops, even lightweight (under five pounds) ruggedized ones are bulky and heavy compared to a smart phone. Not the kind of stuff troops like to haul around. As a practical matter, it is only company commanders and a few others (like air and artillery controllers) who use laptops under fire. Platoon leaders (and platoon sergeants) could use a smart phone with laptop capabilities. So could squad leaders, and anyone who has to drive a truck (armored vehicles already come equipped with lots of computers).

Strategy Page notes that the combination of network access and laptop quality software make a military smart phone a very useful gadget. Add in the GPS, and you have something every soldier would want. What the army is looking for is a smart phone that can work off battlefield Wi-Fi and have sufficient encryption and ruggedness to survive enemy efforts, and general rough use, to shut it down. The army now has several decades of experience using seemingly “delicate” electronics on the battlefield. There is no fear about this anymore, especially since some troops are using cell phones in combat (although they are not supposed to).

For commanders, a military smart phone (MSP for short) has numerous advantages. First, there is the convenience of having most of your unit data literally at your finger tips. Status of troops, ammo, equipment, and the inevitable to-do list, as well as maps and plans for future, or past, operations. Smart phones also push data onto a phone, to keep databases and schedules updated. Commanders love that sort of thing, as it saves them the hassle of checking on updates. Updates are also a lot easier to collect with everyone connected. Senior NCOs can much more easily poll troops by texting them to get current status of things like ammo, sleep, food, or health. Commanders like to stay on top of these items.

The army is in a hurry to get this working, because commercial smart phones are getting smarter and cheaper, and a lot more troops are getting them. Moreover, new smart phone models come out each year, and the MSP would be more effective if it could keep up with that development cycle.

While troops like stuff like personal radio sets (which came of age in Iraq), they also know that cell phones can do the same thing, and more. So the MSP would simply plug into the helmet headset. The army also has to deal with troops demand for iPod features (the most widespread hand-held computer). The MSP would also be able to take stills and videos, and the troops like to carry favorite vids with them. “Combining business and pleasure is not encouraged in the military,” Strategy Page concludes, “but the MSP will be a very personal piece of gear. It might even be able to use civilian cell networks as well, meaning that every troop will be issued one.”

The effort to deliver a useful MSP is seen as a lost cause, but the demand is strong, and growing. Something surprising might happen. When some other nation comes up with an MSP, that might provide the incentive, now lacking, for the procurement bureaucracy.

In fact, Israel already has: Officers from battalion commanders and up were equipped with first-generation, Israel-made MSPs during the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Lebanon, but they did not work very well. There were problems with sending videos and pictures of targets from front-line officers back to artillery officers in the rear — and also this: the Israeli designers kept the English keyboard; now, every Israeli takes English in high-school, and most Israelis are fluent in English, but when you are under bombardment, and snipers keep you pinned down, and the adrenalin is rushing, most IDF officers would rather text in Hebrew than in English.

All this brings us back to the iPhone apps: Remember how, in the early phases of the invasion of Iraq, parents bought body armor for their kids on the front because the U.S. Army was light on both body- and Humvee protection? (In response to angry questions, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said that “You go to war with the army you have, not the army you wish you had”). We can see military-related iPhone apps being developed by enterprising programmers, and officers and soldiers buying them for $4.95 or so.