A lot of military technology is lightyears ahead of anything that we civilians are using in our day-to-day lives, but now the Army is looking to adopt some consumer technology for its soldiers. A new initiative, called Connecting Soldiers to Digital Applications (CSDA), is aiming to equip every soldier with an approved smartphone and perhaps even pay the bills for its use. The devices could serve a wide variety of uses, from the usual checking calendars and email to viewing surveillance cams and training materials. There's no word on which handsets will be deployed, although an Army official said that they're not tied to a single platform and are "open to using Palm Trios [sic] the Android, iPhone or whatever else is out there."
Along with the hardware, much of the same software found on our smartphones will also likely be used by the military, although I'm sure that they'll be crafting some specialized programs, too. Still, it's pretty amazing that the Army is considering adopting regular smartphones to aid the troops, and it really shows just how powerful these devices are becoming.
