Raytheon's iPhone app will track enemy combatants in real time
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted December 16th 2009 9:50PM
posted December 16th 2009 9:50PM
Raytheon, known more often than not in these parts for its ability to zap people at a distance with microwaves, has just announced a little something called One Force Tracker. Essentially an iPhone app, it leverages recent developments in location awareness and social networking to keep tabs on both friends and enemies in the field, displaying positions on maps in real time -- all the while enabling secure communications between soldiers. "If there is a building with known terrorist activities, it could automatically be pushed to the phone when the soldiers get near that area," said Raytheon CTO J. Smart. Of course, there is still quite a bit of work to be done to make this work: iPhones do not have removable batteries, nor do they support multi-tasking, meaning that some sort of ruggedized, battery-powered external case would be necessary to get this battle-ready -- as well some jailbreaking. There's no word on a possible release date yet -- which means, sadly, that it looks like the U.S. Army is stuck with its Celio REDFLYs for the time being.
Can the 1G iPod touch handle that?
:?
So.... Will DoD install ATT towers all over the enemy lands prior to invasion?
@Dori
are you that ignorant to believe that the iphone is only availabe in the US?
@Chaos Theory Maybe he should have just said, cell towers. But if it's a war zone, the military would knock those out. So the whole phone would have to be proprietary.
@(Unverified) Why would the military knock out cell towers? Then they'd have to pay to rebuild them afterwards, thats just not smart. See, if the military is worried about terrorists using cell phones during an invasion or something, they can just jam the cell phone frequencies. No destruction of infrastructure needed.
@Brokinarrow
Ah you see, that's where Haliburton comes in.
You destroy the country, then get your buddies Milt-billion dollar contracts to "rebuild"
@logicbombde
Exactly!! You have to destroy in order to build... or make $$.
BTW, I wonder if the extreme fanboy would enlist just to have this app?
That sounds a bit cumbersome. I don't know if the technology's there yet, but I feel like a visor or at least one of those flip-down displays that covers one eye would be better for conveying this information rather than having Sergeant Joe pull out his iPhone in the middle of a firefight.
o geeeze, another gizmo just to grab some free PR from iPhone fans..
this is simply dumb, why would you develop such an advanced and critical app for an OS that only works on one device, a device that can't multi task or have it's battery replaced? regardless of people's opinion of the iphone, it's simply a poor design choice if you're going to use it for combat purposes
@Chaos Theory
It's par for the course, although I am surprised they would bother trying to get the military to use new fangled anything.
Killing your enemies? There's an app for that!
Should have made it for Android. That would have solved all their problems
@Shootingblue : should have released it for Symbian, which 90% of the world runs. Or maybe - gasp! - Windows, since we know the Army uses ruggedized laptops.
@Shootingblue They did...search for the Rat System (Raytheon Android Tactical System) http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/19/android-google-military-technology-wireless-raytheon.html?partner=technology_newsletter
@Shootingblue
Hey, we've got lives on the line here and we need to pick a reliable, secure mobile operating system. .....so like, I'm thinking either Symbian or Windows..
@ethana2 Well your comment wasn't biased by your avatar at all :)
Sounds like the perfect tool for those "Black Friday" Walmart sales.
Sounds like some kind of proof-of-concept to me, not a finished product. Personally I think a battlefied Tom-Tom on the dash of your Hum-Vee would be more useful: could warn of traffic snarls due to IED attack, sites of potential ambushes, nearby falafel stands..
@psycros
mmmmm.... falafels!
Wow...it's weird to see stuff you work on show up on Engadget.
@Zaro27: so you work for Raytheon, as a programmer? Well, on the extreme off-chance that you do, then on behalf of everyone here let me ask: WTH was your company thinking? The iPhone doesn't exactly scream "combat-ready".
@psycros Don't ask me. I'm fresh out of college. They basically said, "Hey, new guy. Here's this group of people. You're working with them on this project. Do what they say and you'll get to keep this job." They had me design parts of the UI. I guess they choose an iPhone due to the ease of use coupled with the ready availability of the device itself.
It was too much to ask to google "iPhone us army" to find out why raytheon are developing for iPhone/iPod touch rather than something else?
http://www.newsweek.com/id/194623
As for your points, have you ever tried changing a cellphone battery in a sandstorm while wearing gloves? Something sleeve-like like an mophie would be a lot more practical.
The article goes into the training and procurement of using the most popular mobile computing device, and multitasking is not an advantage in this scenario.
So first the government sent troops into combat without sufficient armor, now their giving them one of the most fragile devices on the planet for critical information, full of apps that our enemies can easily get ahold of and hack to their heart's content. Great.
@janekm
Because the soldiers are always going to have their gloves on...
soldiers aren't in a constant state of "fighting". There are upswings and downswings in action. I'd say a replaceable battery would be pretty much be a better use than some battery life extension sleeve
@Rizzo
and no, I didn't RTFA
As everyone above me has stated, there are a number of other platforms that this would be much more useful on than that shit-phone. This is just an example of the higher-ups liking their little itty bitty iphone and telling the army developers/contractors to make an "app for that". Just another example of idiots being in control of decisions,,,
The BOWMAN system we use in the British Forces already does this. It's been around for several years. It's robust, tested and in use in several operational theaters.
It also ties in with the comms systems and everything else. I can't see them getting rid of a new several billion pound investment for the sake of a flimsy, plastic/glass device which could quite easily fail without warning.
Do I have an iPhone? Yes.
Would I trust it in a conflict environment? No.
You can fight the Battle of Leipzig on the iPhone? What app is that?
Our UAV is online!
Certain apps I have only allow me to use them with other iPhone users. I don't know which of my contacts are iPhone users, so is there an app that would let me identify the iPhone users?
http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=2281001
will this work in call of duty: modern warfare 2????
They need multitasking and a removable battery?
Come on, Raytheon. What are you asking for, a fricking ROBOT PHONE?!
I like how there's no mention of the R.A.T. System and how it came before the iPhone system.
http://mobile.engadget.com/2009/10/21/raytheon-deploying-android-powered-rats-on-battlefields-in-afgha/
http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/19/android-google-military-technology-wireless-raytheon.html?partner=technology_newsletter
A Robot is a Thing that Does.
Need an iraqi insurgent crushed? It does that.
Need a hole punched through an Afghan terrorist? It does that too. So instead of a smart phone, you need a Robot Phone. A phone that Does.
Does have a giant screen. Does run thousands of Android apps with axle-greased ease. Does swap semi-functional giggling brat vanity for a Bareknuckles Bucket of Does.
Raytheon. We Dead Things.
But can it hack door locks?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuyDsNsK7sk
Haha. I guess the iphone EULA (http://images.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/iphone.pdf) does not apply here?
Fact: soldiers love gadgets and looking cool.
iPhone is a gadget
Soldiers sitting in a stake out get bored and play with their iPhones
See the logic flow? This is not meant to be a widely-distributed hardware/software solution. More like "let's leverage whatever resources are already available and make things easier for our soldiers"
Was I the only one who thought "epic paintbal warsl"?
Apple + Raytheon on iPhone = so much evil in such a small space.
Err...what happens when a soldier with this phone gets killed and his phone stolen? The enemy would then see all your friends on this app...