Info Warfare in the Palm of the Hand

The technology that allows these and other capabilities is getting smaller, lighter and better. And now, much of this technology is getting consolidated into one device: the ruggedized handheld computer.

For the soldier of the 21st century, not only is there a larger premium on the collection of information, but on the management and the transmission of it as well. Ruggedized handhelds can enable the collection storage, organization and transmission of data much more efficiently than was possible before.

Such devices can be useful for instant access to operational plans, maps, schematics of buildings or other tactical information. Or it could be medical information, maintenance records or language translation capabilities. Soldiers can send and receive e-mail through a deployed tactical local area network. And through global positioning system (GPS) tracking and real-time location systems (RTLS), commanders and team members can pinpoint where mission participants are at all times, enabling more effective mission coordination as well as substantially reducing the potential for friendly fire.

Thanks to the devices, the sensor-to-shooter time—the time lag between locating a target and firing—could be reduced from minutes to seconds, obviating the need to verbally call in the target coordinates. A spotter, using laser-range-finder binoculars connected to a handheld computer, could collect information on the target, and the computer would immediately code the information and send it to a command center or attack aircraft via an Iridium satellite phone system. However, SOF operators are currently unable to send secure data over the Iridium satellite phone—only via secure voice. This could be particularly useful when dealing with a fast-moving target, such as a mobile rocket launcher. It also could improve targeting accuracy, since various built-in automated processes reduce the possibility of human error, such as wrong coordinates or misidentified vehicles.

In addition to having longer battery lives, the devices are rapidly evolving to become more multi-functional, smaller, lighter and powerful.

Because of security concerns, current directives from the National Security Agency and USSOCOM disallow personal digital assistants (PDAs) for field use by most special operations forces (SOF), according to Joe Adami, project analyst and combat developer at U.S. Army SOCOM, Ft. Bragg, NC. While the testing of such devices may be authorized, their actual field use is not.

To be sure, SOF have ruggedized electronic devices that carry out many of the same functions of handheld computers. And SOF use tablet-computer-sized devices, in the form of the Panasonic CF-18 Toughbook. Moreover, some SOF units have received waivers for limited use of PDAs, according to Adami.

Better yet, handheld-sized, full-blown computers—as opposed to PDAs—are authorized for field use. Adami says there is an ongoing program to outfit the SOF community with field computing devices (FCDs), expected to be available sometime in 2004. It will be a complete Windows 2000 or XP computer system as opposed to a Windows CE- or Pocket PC-based PDA, yet it will be the size of a PDA. Adami said he is not at liberty to reveal which companies USSOCOM is working with in this area. So despite the ban on PDAs, there will be something that has all the capabilities of a PDA—and a lot more—that will be fully authorized.

Ruggedized handhelds are sealed from wind, rain and dust, and able to withstand hard falls and other abuse. Its battery life can last anywhere from four to eight, or even 10 or more hours, depending on the model. Many models are voice-over IP capable, and some have built-in bar code scanners, secure digital (SD) expansion slots and imagers for taking video. They can connect to different types of wireless networks, such as 802.11 wireless LAN or Bluetooth. Manufacturers/integrators of ruggedized handhelds include Symbol Technologies, Intermec, Casio, Panasonic and Motorola.

Brian Lehmann, senior director of Global Government Solutions at Symbol Technologies, said if a secure WiFi perimeter can be set up, the handheld can transmit images back to a command post. "They enable the commander to make decisions based on live video. He can view and hear all the information that's coming from the front line."

Commanders can view images, maps and other data, and know exactly where everyone is due to GPS and RTLS. "So now you can position those soldiers based on movement that you're actually seeing, hearing and reading from your deployed soldier force," said Lehmann. "If they receive building layouts or compound layouts, they can have access. Whatever they have in the field can be sent back to the command post and whatever is at the command post can be sent out to the field. It's really the ability to get information at the point of activity."

The ruggedized PDA industry is evolving toward a Microsoft CE or Pocket PC world, said Larry Huseby, director of industry marketing at Intermec. "There's a symbiotic relationship between operating system manufacturers and companies such as ours. Standardizing everything really moves things ahead. It also makes it a lot easier for users to develop their software on a standard platform and then port it to different products. And, it makes it easier for a customer to choose the best of breed product for his or her application."

Computing power of the devices is rapidly advancing. Huseby said handhelds are getting to the point where they can handle large, PC-sized applications. "You very seldom find an application that's so complicated or difficult that you can't run it on a PDA. There are very few applications that you need a tablet PC for."

The devices' ability to handle large data is useful for psychological operations, among other things. "In the psyops world, you're looking at taking this data and translating it for loudspeaker teams, using it for leaflets to get the word out, to handle logistics, and communications," said Kyle von Bucholz, senior wireless account manager at PlanetGov (Chantilly, VA), and a former commander with the 3rd Psyop Battalion (Airborne)—formally known as the Psyop Dissemination Battalion—and a Signal Officer with the 1st/7th Special Forces Group.

His company provides the EOS Mobile Cruiser, which is about mid-sized between a handheld and a tablet PC. "Let's say we develop a psychological profile and come up with graphics and other material needed to support an objective, realizing that we need to be sensitive to the culture. They may not like a certain picture. We can make changes on the device, send it back, and have 10,000 copies printed out. Or we can take interviews. Or we can take pictures and transcribe them onto digital formats, and transmit them through the LAN network."

Another ruggedized handheld device is the Recon, made by Tripod Data Systems. Notable about this device is that it runs with two AA alkaline or lithium batteries—with just a pocketful of AA batteries, the Recon can be used for days in the field. Moreover, if the batteries go dead, data will not be lost. "We put 128 megabytes (MB) of flash storage on the circuit board, so you can put all of your programs and data in that flash storage," said Roy Scribner, manager of tactical systems at TDS. "And then it doesn't matter if you lose battery power—everything is still there. So it's an additional level of safety."

Then there is the Phraselator, made by VoxTec. It contains a database of thousands of phrases, and when the user speaks a given English phrase into the device, the prerecorded foreign-language equivalent is played through the device's built-in speaker. SOF in Iraq and Afghanistan are currently using them.

Ace Sarich, vice president of VoxTec and a former Navy SEAL in Vietnam, worked with civil affairs units in Afghanistan, who found it quite useful. Without the device, a physician's assistant had to resort to pantomime in order to give instructions to an Afghani patient. "So we built it on the spot—we had a lot of medical phrases but they weren't translated into Pashto. Using the toolkit we sat down with the contract translator and built a custom medical module," said Sarich.

Sarich cited an e-mail from a SOF operator in Iraq, which read, "We used [the Phraselator] as a briefing aid to interrogate former Iraqi intelligence officials, and used it a lot with civilians to determine when and where the enemy went. We were able to use the device to get the exact information on a huge weapons cache where unexploded ordnance was. And as a special forces soldier, I was able to use the device to build rapport with the Iraqi population."

Some SOF medics in Iraq and Afghanistan are currently experimenting with ruggedized iPAQ PDAs for the collection of information on casualties while in the field, according to Adami. He had not yet gotten feedback on the devices' performance. SOCOM also has programs to develop handheld translation devices.

In September, the 75th Ranger Regiment, based at Ft. Benning, GA, carried out a week-long testing and evaluation with a limited number of ruggedized handhelds. One device was the Commanders Digital Assistant (CDA), made by General Dynamics C4 Systems (Taunton, MA).

CDA consists of two hardware platforms. For commanders and staff, it is a ruggedized tablet computer in the form of a Panasonic CF-34 or CF-18 Toughbook, and for other leaders, a ruggedized Hewlett-Packard iPAQ handheld. The CDA software, produced by General Dynamics, operates on Windows CE and provides command and control, situational awareness, mapping, navigation, messaging, collaboration, blue force tracking and other capabilities.

The CDA is spiral development as part of the Land Warrior program sponsored by Program Executive Office (PEO)-Soldier, Ft. Belvoir, VA. Whereas the Land Warrior system is targeted for the individual soldier, the CDA is targeted for the dismounted leader, ranging from the brigade commander and staff, to the battalion commander and staff, to the company commander, to the platoon leader, and possibly down to squad leaders. CDA is the dismounted equivalent of Force XXI Battle Command, Brigade-and-Below (FBCB2), but not tied exclusively to combat platforms or the tactical Internet.

"The Rangers have been our first real opportunity to provide a capability from a special ops perspective, which we'll be doing next year," said Fred Rost, managing director of Command Systems at General Dynamics C4 Systems. "Our effort in September was not only to familiarize them with the CDA, but also get feedback as to what additional capabilities are needed in order to be useful for SOF specifically."

Capabilities of the latest-generation CDA include communications via standard Army radios, embedded GPS, wireless LAN and a tactical modem. Whereas the previous generation weighed 2 pounds, this generation weighs 1 pound. The battery life is between four and six hours, depending on the mission, and General Dynamics is working on extending that to eight hours. The CDA can transmit files, imagery, video, and is capable of instant messenger-style chatting and voice over IP. There is also electronic whiteboarding, where a commander can draw arrows on a map and that overlay appears on the screen of his subordinates in real-time.

Rost said the CDA can also operate over more than one communications means simultaneously. "For example, I can be linked to a single-channel TACSAT, an HF radio, a VHF radio,and an Iridium telephone, connected to maybe four different people in different locations, sharing information over multiple communications systems simultaneously."

A key function of the CDA and similar devices is blue force tracking. Whereas during the Iraq conflict, blue force tracking commonly has been applied to the tracking of vehicles using expensive commercial satellite systems, the CDA enables the tracking of dismounted units using any available secure tactical communications system organic to the unit, as well as commercial assets as available. Not only can the location of individual soldiers be tracked, but there is also a feature where the center of mass for a particular unit can be aggregated and pin-pointed, said Rost.

And with the tracking information, past events can be reconstructed to provide intelligence briefings to other commanders.

Based on their recent evaluation, Rangers expressed interest in integrating the CDA with laser-range-finding binoculars, as well as with enhanced communications interfaces, such as the MBITR radio and PRC-117F multi-band radio. They also desired an interface with the Maneuver Control System-Light software used for mission planning. The Rangers also were interested in language translation capabilities.

Regarding security, the Rangers expressed a desire for stronger access controls, as well as the ability to zeroize the devices remotely. "For example, if you took my device and started running away and my buddy saw that, he could issue a kill command to that device so that the information is erased," said Rost.

General Dynamics already has integrated most of these features into the CDA and is in the process of integrating the remaining requested features for fielding to the Rangers scheduled for the 1st quarter 2004. In addition, General Dynamics has demonstrated integrating the CDA with the Stryker combat vehicle, to provide a dismounted capability for FBCB2, and exchange C2 and situational awareness information between mounted and dismounted units.

One recent CDA enhancement is the integration of Raytheon's light tactical fire direction (LTACFIRE) software into the CDA. General Dynamics has also integrated the VIPER laser range-finding binoculars with CDA. "The target information can be fed into the LTACFIRE software through the CDA, and provide that as a firing solution over whatever communications are available," said Rost. General Dynamics is also working with Raytheon to enable the CDA to calculate mortar ballistics.

The XVIII Airborne Corps is also incorporating the CDA as part of its assault CP package.

This past fall, the CDA underwent actual battlefield testing of about 200 units with members of the 82nd Airborne Division. Initially, the testing was to take place at their home base of Ft. Bragg in August, but the soldiers were deployed to Iraq on short notice in advance of testing. As a result, the administrator of the test—PEO Soldier—opted to carry out the test there. However, this change of venue substantially cut short the soldiers' CDA training program.

U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel David Gallop, the product manager of Land Warrior, said the focus of the handheld is to answer four simple but elusive questions: to have each soldier know where his fellow soldiers are, where the soldier himself is, where the enemy is, and what one's commanders want done. "The CDA is our primary technology enabler to allow us to answer those four questions," he said.

Specialist Gabriel Palmer, with Bravo Company of the 1st Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne, used the CDA while conducting missions in the Falluja area. He said the CDA sometimes stepped in where traditional communications failed. In one instance he was tracking a mission with the Toughbook. "As they drove further and further away from the headquarters, I didn't have any more communication with them voice-wise. But the CDA and Toughbook still had communications with each other, so they were able to send the situation reports across the radios via data instead of voice." Moreover, he could pinpoint their locations through GPS tracking.

Scout platoon Sergeant 1st Class Brandon Jenks of the 1st Battalion, 504th, remarked, "Most of the guys like it a lot because of the ability to have the maps in front of you and track their movement—both yourself and other units on your left and right. It comes in handy to prevent friendly fires, and it's good for the platoon leader to see first hand, so he can control his maneuver elements on the ground as they move forward and tell them to slow down or speed up."

However, on several occasions, Jenks said that data communications (such as e-mail) failed to function. Moreover, GPS coverage often stopped working. "I'd say 90 percent of the time, one person would be tracking and the other four would stop tracking after we moved out a kilometer or two."

Technicians at Ft. Belvoir replicated the GPS problem and isolated it to procedural errors in operator set-up. They are correcting this by changing some of the factory default settings and providing streamlined operator set-up instructions.

Battery life was another issue. "Most of our missions are at least six to eight hours, or longer. But if you had a battery that would last similar to the ASIP (radio) battery, that would be a good thing," said Jenks.

A main lesson learned was that a condensed version of training is not feasible. "Once they turned on the systems, some of the guys that did have the training would remember bits and pieces of it and others would remember other parts, and in general the population was not able to mix with each other to have a system operated in the way that we wanted," said Major George Holguin, assistant product manager for Land Warrior. The training was shortened to one week because of the sudden deployment to Iraq. To be effective, four to six weeks of training is required, he said.

Gallop summed it up: "The big lesson learned out of all of this, and the thing that we can't afford to repeat again, is that we have to make sure we give these troops enough training to gather confidence to go out and hit the ground and use the system. By the time we got into the third or fourth day of training, they were alerted and had to go. So we've never been able to give a full breadth of training."

In addition to the CDA, another device is the Joint Pocket-Sized Forward Entry Device (PFED), made by Talla-Tech (Tallahassee, FL), which is under subcontract with General Dynamics C4 Systems. The PFED project is sponsored by Army PEO Intelligence and Effects, based at Ft. Monmouth, NJ. The $2,300 device is particularly suited for forward spotters, thanks to its ability to rapidly process the information necessary to coordinate artillery strikes. It includes a dismounted data automated communications terminal, a gun display unit replacement, and lightweight technical fire direction system.

Talla-Tech manufactures three versions of the device. The most sophisticated version features a common core computer, PCMCIA card slot, embedded GPS, harsh environment sealed dome, remote GPS antenna port, and military GPS fill connector. There is also an external battery adapter.

The PFED is centered on an Intel Xscale 400 MHz processor with a Windows CE operating system. The system has internal Bluetooth capability and weighs no more than 23.5 ounces.

Meanwhile, the relentless drive toward faster, smaller, lighter, more functional and more powerful devices continues.

One vision of the future is the Meta Pad, being developed by IBM Research. It is a 9-ounce portable computing device that opens up new functionalities among handhelds. It is about the size of a 3-by-5-inch index card and about 3/4-inch thick. Lacking an internal power supply and display, it is not a PDA by itself; rather, it can be it can be instantaneously transformed into a handheld, desktop, laptop, tablet or wearable computer without having to be rebooted and eliminating the need for "synching." Users, for example, could attach it to a small touch screen and carry it like a PDA, but with the power and functionality of a full computer.

Meta Pad is not meant to be an end-user product, but rather a vehicle to enable technology manufacturers and integrators to develop better end-user products. It should make anytime-anywhere computing even more feasible. "We're in several discovery conversations to see if it finds appeal with aerospace and defense," said an IBM spokesman. He said it lends itself tremendously to customization by such developers.

On a similar note, the CBS 60 minutes piece on the SEALs that showed then fingerprinting people out in Nowhere Afghanistan and then finding that one of the people they fingerprinted was a bad guy. They didn't show the technology but it was probably in this family of tools.

I make my living in technology. And in the last 10 years I've been interested in the technology that the military uses, particularly in the USN as that is where I served. It is fantastic. Most people have no idea.
Something I just came across (everything I ever post here can be found on the web), was the new model launcher for the sea sparrow. It allows them to pack 4 missiles into one launcher tube. The Aegis class cruiser has 127 tubes. If they only use 80 tubes for surface to air that's 320 missiles they can use. In my day a DLG would be lucky to get off 2 terrier rounds. And radar and EW would be overwhelmed by more than 10 targets. The Aegis can track several hundred. Unreal stuff.

This one is quite amazing:

The Phraselator, made by VoxTec. It contains a database of thousands of phrases, and when the user speaks a given English phrase into the device, the prerecorded foreign-language equivalent is played through the device's built-in speaker. SOF in Iraq and Afghanistan are currently using them.

Ace Sarich, vice president of VoxTec and a former Navy SEAL in Vietnam, worked with civil affairs units in Afghanistan, who found it quite useful. Without the device, a physician's assistant had to resort to pantomime in order to give instructions to an Afghani patient. "So we built it on the spot—we had a lot of medical phrases but they weren't translated into Pashto. Using the toolkit we sat down with the contract translator and built a custom medical module," said Sarich.

Sarich cited an e-mail from a SOF operator in Iraq, which read, "We used [the Phraselator] as a briefing aid to interrogate former Iraqi intelligence officials, and used it a lot with civilians to determine when and where the enemy went. We were able to use the device to get the exact information on a huge weapons cache where unexploded ordnance was. And as a special forces soldier, I was able to use the device to build rapport with the Iraqi population."

Sort of the Universal Translator of Star Trek Fame. :)
The SEALs actually don't train in languages, like the Green Beret, so I bet they really appreaciate this tool. On the show tonight they had a translator with them (the only face that was blurred completely out).

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