Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,283
30,346



air_force_ipad.jpg
Following a report from earlier this month indicating that the U.S. Department of Defense was preparing to approve Apple devices running iOS 6 for use on military networks, Bloomberg now reports that the department has officially issued the authorization, opening the door for greater use of Apple's products.
The Defense Department said in a statement today that it has approved the use of Cupertino, California-based Apple's products running a version of the iOS 6 mobile platform.

The decision eventually may spur a three-way fight for a market long dominated by Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry. The Pentagon on May 2 approved Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung's devices, as well as BlackBerry 10 smartphones and BlackBerry PlayBook tablets.
The report notes that out of more than 600,000 mobile devices used by the Defense Department, only about 41,000 of those are Apple products, with most of those not connected directly to the military's networks. With the new approvals, Apple and Samsung are expected to eat into BlackBerry's roughly 75% share of mobile devices within the agency.

As noted in the report earlier this month, the Department of Defense's approval of iOS 6 devices for sensitive applications is expected to have impact beyond the military, with other businesses requiring strict security standards becoming more likely to embrace Apple's products.

Pentagon approval for iOS 6 devices comes just as The Street reports that the U.S. Air Force is expecting to save more than $50 million over ten years following last year's decision to replace thousands of pages of flight manuals with iPads.
"By removing all that paper, [Air Mobility Command] will capture about $750,000 in fuel savings [annually] just based off the decreased weight," said [electronic flight bag program manager Major Brian] Moritz.

Removing the need to print and distribute thousands of flight manuals, however, equates to an even greater cost saving. "It comes out to just over $5 million a year," noted Moritz. "With fuel savings, it comes out to $5.7 million annually in pure cost. When you look at $5.7 million a year, over 10 years, that's well over $50 million."
The Air Force is not the only group switching to iPads to replace traditional flight bags used by pilots, as a number of commercial airlines have also begun transitioning to the technology in order to reduce weight and therefore fuel costs, as well as lighten loads for the pilots themselves.

Update: Apple has provided a comment on the Pentagon approval to AllThingsD:
"With iPhone and iPad being tested or deployed in almost every Fortune 500 company, Apple continues to scale across enterprise with nearly 30,000 companies globally developing and distributing iOS apps for corporate use by their employees," Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller told AllThingsD. "The FIPS 140-2 certification and STIG approval demonstrate our ongoing commitment to deliver a secure platform to our enterprise and government customers around the world who deploy iOS devices on their networks."
(Photo: James Rogers/The Street)

Article Link: U.S. Department of Defense Approves iOS 6 Devices for Military Networks
 

blackcrayon

macrumors 68020
Mar 10, 2003
2,252
1,823
I'm wondering which "Samsung devices" are approved, as this would seem to cover quite a bit more operating systems and subtle variations on each.
 

alectheking

macrumors 6502a
Mar 9, 2010
584
28
Hopefully I'll be able to add my .mil email address to my phone eventually. Considering its on NIPRNET already I don't see why not. Now all I need is a CAC reader that interfaces with the lightning port, and I'd be mobile for 99% of my work.
 

NMBob

macrumors 68000
Sep 18, 2007
1,901
2,413
New Mexico
Viruseses?

I know they are not going to be using off-the-shelf anything, but are there really no Android viruses/malware to worry about here?
 

ElTorro

macrumors 6502
Jan 23, 2013
273
2
I'm wondering which "Samsung devices" are approved, as this would seem to cover quite a bit more operating systems and subtle variations on each.

Samsung devices with the Knox were approved around May 2nd, so I suspect it's the S4, unless they release it for the Notes and S3.
 

2bikes

macrumors 6502
Mar 9, 2012
420
4
Now all North Korea has to do is send several spys down south to Samsung`s Galaxy team. :p
 

AppleMark

macrumors 6502a
Jun 17, 2009
852
200
The CCTV Capital of the World
"By removing all that paper, [Air Mobility Command] will capture about $750,000 in fuel savings [annually] just based off the decreased weight," said [electronic flight bag program manager Major Brian] Moritz.

Typical.... USAF spend $1.5 billon on just one stealth bomber and quibble about a mere $750,000 total fuel saving... ;)
 

Alumeenium

macrumors regular
May 15, 2013
200
68
yes but paper is impervious to EMP attacks / lighting striking a plane

good luck with your flash storage :confused:
 

alectheking

macrumors 6502a
Mar 9, 2010
584
28
it works, unlike half the tech floating around today

new isnt always best, you realize, esp when its full of software/hardware bugs

Yep! I work on a C2ISR platform and some of our comm parts are older than our airframe, but they also fail the least. Military systems don't have the luxury of being as widely tested before they go mission capable due to security reasons and whatnot, so they only earn their worth after many hours of flying real world missions and subsequent optimizations.
 

ArtOfWarfare

macrumors G3
Nov 26, 2007
9,544
6,042
Hoping someone here might be a pilot or might know a pilot they can ask and have this question answered:

How many of those papers have you actually read in the air, personally? Can you estimate how many of those papers anyone has ever or will ever read while in the air?

It just seems to me that it's impossible to realistically need so much information with you and that having it all in book form is really that useful, but I have no experience with this stuff so I'd like to hear from someone who knows.
 

toaster64

macrumors regular
May 14, 2013
164
0
I know they are not going to be using off-the-shelf anything, but are there really no Android viruses/malware to worry about here?

Are there viruses on Linux? I know there is malware, but it should be avoidable I'd think.

----------

I used to think these things were toys back in 2009.
 

HMI

Contributor
May 23, 2012
830
312
I still have 10+ years worth of old paper maps in the trunk of my car that I haven't touched since I got my iPhone.

Time to clean out my car!

How much do you think I'll save in fuel costs each year?
 

FloatingBones

macrumors 65816
Jul 19, 2006
1,483
738
"It comes out to just over $5 million a year," noted Moritz. "With fuel savings, it comes out to $5.7 million annually in pure cost. When you look at $5.7 million a year, over 10 years, that's well over $50 million."

It's always refreshing to see our armed forces get a complex math calculation correct. ;)
 

rogsmitty

macrumors newbie
Jul 28, 2011
8
0
Honolulu, HI
Hoping someone here might be a pilot or might know a pilot they can ask and have this question answered:

How many of those papers have you actually read in the air, personally? Can you estimate how many of those papers anyone has ever or will ever read while in the air?

It just seems to me that it's impossible to realistically need so much information with you and that having it all in book form is really that useful, but I have no experience with this stuff so I'd like to hear from someone who knows.

The problem is that you never know when you might need them...emergency, divert, etc. Trust me, everything that is carried is needed whether it's a flight manual or an approach plate. On any given mission we could be re-cut in flight to be sent anywhere. Not having the proper pubs on board would hamper that capability especially in the airlift community. Not so much in the fighter world.

The Air Force has been testing iPads in the cockpit for quite some time now. Where it gets complicated is that an iPad is a very significant weakness that can be exploited by both state and non-state actors. Unfortunately, as with so many things in the DoD, what started out as a good idea has turned into a complete mess. The Air Force saw a great way to save money by having an EFB like the iPad, but didn't think it all the way through. What if it's compromised? Now you have an iPad with a camera on it in a potentially sensitive environment.

The AF made a big mistake going with Apple on this one. All that was really needed was an e-reader with PDF capability.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.