Communication security

Combat Smartphones: Helping Warfighters on Battlefields

Throughout the past few years soldiers around the world have been carrying commercial smartphones with them in the field. Although most militaries would not allow soldiers to bring their personal smartphones into combat areas, some militaries have been supplying their soldiers with smartphones that have certain applications installed that are intended to help the combat soldier on the battlefield.

Warfighters have adopted smartphones for assisting in tasks such as communication, location sharing, field maintenance, and even calling in airstrikes. By providing soldiers with real-time information sharing, smartphones drastically improve the warfighters situational awareness. They also get rid of the soldiers need to carry certain items such as maps, trackers, and radios since a multi-purpose smartphone is all that in one.

Aside from being small and easy to use there are a number of sensors that come with smartphones that are incredibly useful for the warfighter. One such sensor is the GPS tracker. Soldiers with smartphones can track the location of friendly forces at any level just by opening an app on their phones, thus improving the soldier’s situational awareness. Traditional methods of doing this are rarely at the individual’s level and not nearly as accurate as smartphone GPS.