“In Basra’s Hayaniyah district, a notorious stronghold of Shia militias, a US army sergeant leading a patrol faced two suspects in the street. Amid rising tension he produced a gadget from his pocket and after a few minutes of its use the matter was amicably resolved. The Iraqis and the Americans went their separate ways,” Kim Sengupta reports for The Independent.
“The equipment being used – described by the US Army as ideal for 21st-century warfare – was an Apple iPod touch,” Sengupta reports. “In a matter of minutes the soldier had established through words and images that the two men were not considered to be serious threats and detaining them was unnecessary.”
“Apple’s iPods and iPhones, symbols of a modern urban lifestyle, are now in use in a very different setting – the front lines of Iraq and Afghanistan. They are, say the US forces, ideal for the age of “network centric warfare”, relatively easy to use, safe with secure software, and far cheaper than manufacturing a military version,” Sengupta reports.
“The sheer versatility of the kit – with the capability of over 30,000 programmes – allows a huge variety of functions needed for operations ranging from providing language translations to the transmitting of sensitive information and working out trajectories for snipers,” Sengupta reports. “Projects are on the way to use them as guidance systems for bomb disposal robots and receivers of aerial footage from unmanned drone aircraft.”
Sengupta reports, “Members of the British military who have seen the Apple instruments in action drool about the opportunities on offer.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Peter B.” for the heads up.]
