Today’s civilian travelers can step off a plane in a foreign destination and instantly get connected to maps, transportation schedules, restaurant reviews, and other convenient tools through a single handheld device. Now the U.S. Army is hoping to put that same technology into the hands of soldiers whose lives may depend on up-to-date intelligence.

The potential for smart phones and other digital devices to provide critical real-time information in the field is the impetus behind Connecting Soldiers with Digital Applications (CSDA), a new Army program that is putting technology to the test in simulated battlefield environments.

“Think of soldiers stepping off a helicopter on a moonless night,” said Mike McCarthy, director of the mission command complex of the Future Force Integration Directorate at Fort Bliss, Texas. “Smart phones let you maintain situational awareness. You can determine where you are, where your adjacent forces are, and where your targets are.”

A Phone in the Hands of Every Soldier

The goal behind CSDA was originally “to equip every soldier with a smart phone within four months,” McCarthy said. But the team at Fort Bliss quickly determined that their task wasn’t as simple as buying 1.2 million cell phones. Among the issues the Army is tackling moving forward with the CSDA program are:

• Legacy Communications Systems: Rather than replacing existing systems such as Rifleman Radio, the team is focusing on complementing these systems and filling gaps.
• Hardware: The Army is seeking a device-agnostic approach, so that it is not wedded to one operating system.
• Cost: Given the velocity of change in the industry, using commercially available technology can help the Army keep costs down and keep pace with upgrades.
• Power: The Army is experimenting with portable fuel cells and putting solar panels on backpacks.
• Security: “Unfriendly” people are using the same technologies, so security is a critical issue.
• Fragility: While some leaders were concerned about the ability of smart phones to survive life in the Army, McCarthy noted that to date, only one phone has broken during intensive field training: “Soldiers take good care of their phones, because it gives them a capability they didn’t have.”

Arming Soldiers with Apps

The Army is hoping to leverage commercial off-the-shelf technology to do everything from increasing soldiers’ physical fitness via iPhone apps, to providing field manuals via digital readers, to calling medevac helicopters in an emergency.

In addition to smart phones, McCarthy and his team are working with devices including Kindle, Apple iPads, and an Entourage Edge, which incorporates an e-book reader and a tablet into a dual-screen computer.

In the classroom, smart phone applications have already proved their utility by helping raise scores at the Air Defense Center at Fort Bliss. “Soldiers were taking them out of the classroom and competing to see who could get higher scores,” McCarthy said. “They were training themselves.”