Army creates an Android mobile version ready for battle

A 31-year-old Captain of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne, Jonathan Springer, spent his own money (about $26,000) to develop an iPhone App that lets soldiers map and plot waypoints on a battlefield. The app includes the ability to take photos and share information and coordinates with other soldiers. It can even call a medevac. It puts the "military grid reference system (MGRS) and field navigation in the palm of your hand!"

FT. Bragg has now taken mobile development a step further by creating an integrated system that uses the Android OS with some beefed-up security. The system was first developed by MITRE and is now under the direction of the Army's Software Engineering Directorate in Alabama. The Army has even invited outside developers to build apps for the phone, which has a core, default system that includes:

• mapping
• blue force tracking
• Tactical Ground Reporting: TIGR tactical graphics and critical messaging - SPOT reports, Medevac and Mayday

Source: Tacticalnav.com, Mitre.org, NYTimes, ReadWriteWeb - 2011