Report: Army switching from Android to iPhone for tactical smartphone

Dan Pye
By Dan Pye - News Editor
Report: Army switching from Android to iPhone for tactical smartphone

A new report from Military.com claims the U.S. Army Special Operations Command is ditching its Android tactical smartphone in favor of the iPhone.

Report: Army switching from Android to iPhone for tactical smartphone

An Army source not authorized to speak to the media said the iPhone 6S is slated to be used in an iPhone Tactical Assault Kit, a special-operations version of the Army’s Nett Warrior battlefield situational awareness tool. The source said the Army is making the switch because the iPhone is “faster, smoother.

Android freezes up” and has to be restarted often.
The equipment package essentially consists of a smartphone connected to a networked radio, allowing unit leaders view intelligence, watch surveillance video streams from unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and keep track of their location and the locations of their soldiers using GPS. Android had a particularly hard time running a split screen simultaneously showing the planned route and UAS video feed, failing to refresh properly and forcing a restart that wasted valuable time in the field, according to the source.

By Dan Pye News Editor
Dan Pye was a news editor at iLounge. He's been involved with technology his whole life, and started writing about it in 2009. He's written about everything from iPhone and iPad cases to Apple TV accessories.