Practical Considerations for Use of Mobile Apps at the Tactical Edge

Abstract

Along with the increased interest by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) in the use of portable electronics for the warfighter as part of the Command and Control (C2) infrastructure, such as smart phones and tablet computers, there is the alluring possibility of incorporating or adapting the associated commercial mobile apps ecosystem to gain access to the vast array of functionality available. Currently, over a million Android apps and a million iOS apps are available for download from the Google Play and Apple iTunes app stores, respectively. Of these, most would not be considered relevant to the military mission in their original forms, but often can form the basis of militarily useful functions after suitable customization (e.g., social media for C2, games adapted for training, maps for situational awareness). In addition, due to the special requirements of the military environment at the tactical edge, there are serious practical considerations that need to be addressed, such as operating under limited communications and establishing a viable app ecosystem, in order to successfully tap into these apps. The commercial mobile app ecosystem requirements, features and enablers are compared with the military environment. Key factors to be considered include major differences in the economic drivers and scale between the commercial world and DoD for developers and deployers, the increased security needs of the apps for soldiers both from the vulnerability and supply-chain aspects, difficulties in patching and keeping platforms and apps up-to-date, privacy constraints, and concerns about the distribution of information such as location data. The DoD is currently pursuing several policy, research and pilot efforts, primarily at the enterprise level versus the tactical edge, to facilitate implementation of some form of mobile apps ecosystem.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2014
Accession Number
ADA606773

Entities

People

  • Jonathan R. Agre
  • Karen D. Gordon
  • Marius S. Vassiliou

Organizations

  • Institute for Defense Analyses

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Cyber
  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Authentication
  • Command And Control
  • Computer Programming
  • Computers
  • Department Of Defense
  • Mobile Ad Hoc Networks
  • Mobile Application Software
  • Mobile Devices
  • Mobile Operating Systems
  • Mobile Phones
  • Operating Systems
  • Situational Awareness
  • Smartphones
  • Social Media
  • Software Development
  • Software Testing
  • Tablet Computers

Readers

  • Agent-Based Social Robotics and Mobile-Assisted Learning in Virtual Environments.
  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Fully Networked C3
  • Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control
  • Microelectronics