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The Pentagon plans to overhaul the way troops handle classified material and official data, a move intended to clear the way for more widespread use of smartphones, tablets and wireless technology.
Many top commanders fear that a wide expansion of wireless devices will put Defense Department information systems at risk. At the same time, they can’t resist tapping the potential of smartphones and tablets in combat zones and conference rooms.
For example, Google’s Android system was just approved for use across the force, but only for information stamped “unclassified” and “for official use only.” That is prompting top defense officials to reconsider what needs to remain officially secret.
“People are starting to realize the extraordinary power of putting smartphones, with all their capacity, in the hands of a user. But if you don’t allow them to look at the data because it’s overly restrictive, then it’s all for naught,” said Sam Guthrie, program director for Lockheed Martin’s MONAX system, a portable, communications platform that allows troops to operate cellphones from any forward location.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff are revising rules that will declassify large portions of “tactical information exchanges between conventional ground forces during combat and non-combat operations and aviation elements below battalion/squadron level,” according to a JCS memo.
A JCS spokesman declined to discuss the policy change.
This story appeared in the January-February issue of C4ISR Journal.
