USA Army’s Special Operations Force will be making a major switch from Android smartphones to iPhone 6s as battlefield situational assault tool for more precise and glitch free communication.
The SOF will be using iPhone 6s as the end-user device in iPhone Tactical Assault Kit (iTAC), instead of Android Tactical Assault Kit. The kit is designed to carry important military operations via drones, such as, to view intelligence, carry out surveillance, and receive reconnaissance sensor feed via live video streaming. Furthermore, by connecting the smartphone network radio, small unit leaders can know the location of their units and soldiers on a digital map. Therefore, the SOF can not afford any breaks in communication when carrying out intelligence and location tracking operations.
This switch has been decided after experiencing major functionality issues with Android smartphones, which resulted in laggy communication and loss of valuable time. According to the army source, when viewing routes in split screen mode during a live feed from drones and UAS, the Android smartphones frequently ‘froze’ and had to be restarted because the device did not refresh properly.
iPhone is the SOF’s preferred choice as the end-user device in the tactical assault kit because it works faster and smoother. The quality of graphics is better which provides clear and precise visuals. For military use, these qualities provide valuable visual information when taking important decisions and is imperative in keeping soldiers safe, especially in unfriendly territory, by providing information of their location.
On a lighter note, this military switch from Android to iPhone has added fuel to the fire in the on-going debate of which smartphone is better. +1 for iPhone?
