Apple Joins Massive Pentagon Partnership to Develop High-Tech Military Wearables

[MacRumors]

The Pentagon today announced a partnership with 162 companies and universities -- including Apple, Boeing, and Harvard -- to develop and produce a line of high-tech military gear designed to be flexible enough to be worn by both soldiers and even be "molded onto the outside of a jet" (via Reuters). The forward thrust of consumer technology is generating more trust for the Pentagon in the companies of Silicon Valley, a move that Defense Secretary Ash Carter has been attempting to guide for a few years.

"I've been pushing the Pentagon to think outside our five-sided box and invest in innovation here in Silicon Valley and in tech communities across the country," Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in prepared remarks on Friday.

"Now we're taking another step forward."

The new technology would use advanced printing processes to produce "stretchable electronics" that would be outfitted with an array of sensors to be able to track everything from the vitals of the soldier wearing it to the structural integrity of the ship or warplane to which it is attached. All told, the United States government has confirmed it will contribute $75 million over the course of five years for the project, with the partnered companies offering another $90 million, and local government contributions bringing the grand total to just north of $171 million.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple Joins Massive Pentagon Partnership to Develop High-Tech Military Wearables

 

[Erphern]

Hey Siri, kill.

 

[UKPoliticsGuy]

I have no problem with the military-industrial complex as long as I'm able to charge my iPhone faster from it.

 

[Eidorian]

Maybe the consumer wearable market is not what it's cracked up to be. Let me know when we get power armor.

 

[2457282]

This is a slippery slope Tim. Be very careful. I prefer my Apple devices for many reasons. One of them is because they so far have been more privacy and security conscious than others. Getting in bed with the people that are looking to circumvent my privacy and security in the name of finding terrorist is of concern to me.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

This is a slippery slope Tim. Be very careful. I prefer my Apple devices for many reasons. One of them is because they so far have been more privacy and security conscious than others. Getting in bed with the people that are looking to circumvent my privacy and security in the name of finding terrorist is of concern to me.

The Pentagon may be interested in Apple's technology because the Pentagon is interested in the privacy of their own data. In that case, Apple's aim of giving their customers privacy is perfectly inline with the Pentagon's aim of keeping their own privacy.

 

[AngerDanger]

Hopefully, they'll iron out bugs on some of their related services which might find their way on to military wearables.

 

[gadgetguy03]

1 Billion Dollar Jet with 16GB of onboard storage...

 

[CmdrLaForge]

I am against all military development.

 

[You are the One]

Disgusting. Can't buy a US product or service anymore without becoming an accomplice to mass killing of innocent people somewhere in the world.

 

[iKrivetko]

Disgusting. Can't buy a US product or service anymore without becoming an accomplice to mass killing of innocent people somewhere in the world.

You couldn't even without all these arrangements. They all still pay taxes, you know.

 

[luckydcxx]

I am against all military development.

I am for all military development.

 

[Alenore]

Disgusting. Can't buy a US product or service anymore without becoming an accomplice to mass killing of innocent people somewhere in the world.

Most known companies in europe/us somehow contributed to war effort during world wars. So you know.

 

[Crosscreek]

Why not join the military industrial complex? UHG!

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

We seriously need to grow up as a human race and put away our weapons.

 

[thewap]

Will the *thinner* military wearables come in gold finish?

 

[Danoc]

We seriously need to grow up as a human race and put away our weapons.

Agreed.


Now, you first.

 

[maxsix]

Sadly it was only a matter of time before Apple jumped in bed with the Government.

This milestone announcement is the turning point. Anyone from this juncture forward that bashes Google's ad tracking as invasive, then cites Apple as safe and private will be revealing just how clueless they really are...

(cue the haters )

 

[Gasu E.]

Sadly it was only a matter of time before Apple jumped in bed with the Government.

This milestone announcement is the turning point. Anyone from this juncture forward that bashes Google's ad tracking as invasive, then cites Apple as safe and private will be revealing just how clueless they really are...

(cue the haters )

You need to stop using the Internet. It was developed by the US Department of Defense.

I am against all military development.

And YOU also need to stop using the Internet, for the same reason.

I'm trying to help you folks stick to your principle of disassociation from military development. No need to thank me!

 

[selfsilent]

171 Million over 5 years! Apple spent more than that making the Apple Watch.
This sounds like the Government saying "yeah yeah, here's some money, stop bothering us".

 

[one more]

A sad day for Apple and all the root principles they used to propel themselves to the top with: "Think Different" with portraits of Gandhi, being the first in line with worldwide relief in case of natural disasters and presenting themselves as a global forward thinking company that actually cares about human values.

 

[LizKat]

Disgusting. Can't buy a US product or service anymore without becoming an accomplice to mass killing of innocent people somewhere in the world.

You couldn't even without all these arrangements. They all still pay taxes, you know.

I pay taxes so I don't have to stand on a wall at night and tell my family nothing will hurt you tonight without getting past me first. And, I pay taxes so I don't have to personally persuade the government every day that it's not necessary to throw a nuclear weapon every time something looks to be trying to come over the wall. And, I pay taxes so I can keep expressing my opinion in a country where we have free speech even if we now also have a contest about how much free speech I can buy versus how much a mega-corporation or a billionaire can buy...

So here's an opinion: it's pretty cool Apple's among the companies who'll be looking to improve our ability to protect our military forces while also improving their ability to do the job we ask them to do on our behalf.

Quite aside from whether we should have gone into Iraq in 2003, has everyone already forgotten that we sent people on that mission without proper clothes for themselves and their vehicles? Really?

We don't have the draft here any more, so I guess if you don't have anyone serving in the military in your family then maybe you don't care if the gear they carry for their job is as amazing as the gear you can get them for Christmas from Apple. Well there are a lot of people who do care and who hope these companies can make a difference in force security as well as improving the military's ability to perform assigned tasks.

All things considered I'm pretty surprised I wrote this post but there it is.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

I am for all military development.

I am all for defensive development.

The proper response to another country building nuclear weapons isn't to build nuclear weapons yourself - it's to build a defense system capable of defending yourself from nuclear weapons.

Counter their offensive capabilities with better defensive capabilities. If every country did this, then nobody would have offensive capabilities at all, which would mean defensive capabilities would be unnecessary.

Anyways, I think all space faring countries have agreed that we won't be putting weapons into space. So as long as we get civilization going on Mars, I think we will have safely preserved the human race for the next several million years, which should give us time to figure out how to travel between solar systems.

 

[Edgar Spayce]

This is a slippery slope Tim. Be very careful. I prefer my Apple devices for many reasons. One of them is because they so far have been more privacy and security conscious than others. Getting in bed with the people that are looking to circumvent my privacy and security in the name of finding terrorist is of concern to me.

Ah naive and ignorant people...

It's crazy the ignorance (not to say some more demeaning but accurate word about their intelligence) of people, Apple is way more advance than any other hardware company in terms of military and governmental agencies partnership.

As they hint in "Kingsman", iPhone, iPads and Macbook are the most advance spying tools out there...

 

[YegorH]

Cool! Is it going to be called AppleBomb or iBomb?