L-3 Communications developing SME-PED secure wireless handheld

L-3 Communications has won a contract to develop this ultra-secure handheld device called the Secure Mobile Environment - Portable Electronic Device (SME-PED — doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, does it?). Apparently it's gonna cost them about $36 million to do it, too. The secure wireless handheld will have PDA functions as well as providing users with highly secure voice and data channels to enable communications between operatives working at the Top Secret level. The prototype pictured at right sorta looks like a very Eastern Bloc-flavored version of the Treo 650 — because in Soviet Russia, handhelds hold you!