So, the Army's 75th Ranger Regiment is bringing what was supposed to be the military's version of a smartphone to Afghanistan. Yup, the software-based JTRS AN/PRC-154 Rifleman Radio and the Android-based GD300 smartphone-style device are about to make their combat debut, according to our own Matt Cox.
Here's a teaser from his story that we'll running soon over at Military.com:
The concept of teaming a smartphone with JTRS radio came out of the Army’s long-gestating Land Warrior and Nett Warrior programs. Stryker units have deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan with Land Warrior’s computerized command and control ensemble.Land Warrior’s components gave soldiers the ability to communicate by text and voice and track the positions of other Land-Warrior equipped soldiers as icons on a digital map. But the gear weighed more than 10 pounds and required constant maintenance to keep the complex system running.
Click here for more on the Army's recent choice to adopt an actual smartphone-like device to do what it been trying to get nearly 20 pounds worth of gear to do.
