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U.S. Department of Defense Approves iOS 6 Devices for Military Networks
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Very. Very. Soon.
http://www.thursby.com/iOS_readers.html
http://www.thursby.com/pkard_suite.html
Email app in beta, secure web already out, full biometric case with reader shortly.
With this approval my guess is that Thursby broke out the champaign this morning. They are practically ready, giving them a huge short term profit potential.
And paper is also impervious to power outages and battery drain.yes but paper is impervious to EMP attacks / lighting striking a plane
good luck with your flash storage
Every single time without fail… right before new ones are released. Same thing for iPads a few years back, and some iPhones in the news… I don't know why the government doesn't pay better attention. I know it takes a while to approve stuff, but they should be aware of Apple's schedule… especially since the NSA and Dod work hand in hand to provide wiretaps guidelines for all Apple products.
yes but paper is impervious to EMP attacks / lighting striking a plane
good luck with your flash storage
If you are sitting in an aircraft when you get hit by an EMP big enough to take out you iPad, then not being able to look something up because you dont have paper manuals is the LEAST of your worries.
The iPad is the single most secure computing device on the market right now. If Apple lets the military do modifications, it can be even more secure. Cameras can be deactivated, removed, or covered, and so far there hasn't been a single infection on a non-jailbroken iPad. I think they're in good hands.
That iPads will save money is very short sighted. How much in IT contractor costs does it cost to maintain 50 pages of paper? How about thousands of iPads? Does 50 pages of paper crack when you accidentally drop 50 kgs of luggage on top of it? As for energy, 50 pages of paper doesn't cost anything to charge, iPads do. What happens when your much needed iPad runs out of battery? How much will the emergency back-up iPad cost or will there just be a back-up paper file anyways?
I work for the Feds and see the waste firsthand on a daily basis. This is just more govt waste.
I work for the Feds and see the waste firsthand on a daily basis. This is just more govt waste.
I disagree. As an ATP rated pilot with over 10K hours. The iPad is the only commercial, off-the-shelf device cleared by both the Air Force and the FAA.
Many of these devices do not employ, or are yet to be certified as having properly implemented key features such as data at rest encryption, complex passwords, support for Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and [Common Access Cards] for access control, or virtual private networks.
I used to be the technical manual distribution officer in my last duty station in the Air Force, and a heavy aircraft maintainer for 15 years. Our squadron had to maintain over 3500 technical manuals, getting multiple changes for each book every week. Inventory, proper insertion of changes, inspections, etc was an enormous time suck. Digital distribution cuts that to zero. Our maintenance personnel had to carry a 75 lb technical manual box for doing work on the flightline. Entire libraries were maintained on each aircraft in our squadron, in addition to the libraries maintained in the maintenance building for individual sign outs, deployment kits, and the like.
I'd take an iPad in a heartbeat. The government is actually being smart here, for a change. I don't have to hold a flashlight to use the device in the dark, I can send images or video of a discrepancy in motion to engineers from a forward deployed location, I have the entire aircraft tech manual library in one device. I can take time for completed discrepancies on the flightline, send emails, order parts, I can charge the device from the plane itself, etc.
The iPad is PERFECT for military use (I'd chosen the mini, though). Hell, 2 ipads would be a HUGE savings over all that damn paper (and the time it takes to maintain it).
Simplicity is the hallmark of genius. The stuff I used in the military was very simple, rugged and worked very well. There is a huge benefit in some cases by not being on the bleeding edge of technology.
To be clear, the FAA does not approve devices per se. They approve overall setups using whatever device is picked.
Every carrier must spend months testing, and creating a program for their training, use, update and maintenance, for each aircraft type.
In other words, each iPad usage requires a separate approval.
You may not need it every flight, but if something breaks, you sure want the instructions to fix it. And then you start thinking about carrying all of the maps for around the world for every flight because you don't know where you are going to go next. Remember, military flights can be refueled in mid air so you can take off in California and suddenly be told you are being diverted to El Salvador instead of North Carolina.
As a Satellite Communications guy from the Army, I completely agree with you. We had equipment that you could toss out of the airplane with the operator (it was in his rucksack) and it was going to work when he got on the ground. We had other equipment that we had mounted to vehicles that were directly following the tanks into Iraq and when they stopped we had satcom up and running in 10 minutes. So we needed equipment that didn't necessarily look the newest, but it sure was going to work in some of the toughest environments out there.
And to all of our Veterans and Active Duty Military out there, a salute and a prayer for Armed Forces Day and Memorial Day.
Loadmaster station of C-17 transport
With thousands of variables to deal with, a computer like the iPad is really critical to improve safety and efficiency of cargo handling.
The lack of imagination here is unbelievable.
Right now everyone is simply digitizing charts and plates, but soon interactive systems will be created that will reduce cockpit workload.
And Apple has version of iPhone with no cameras, they could easily make a military version of iPad. (They should!!).
They already have BlueTooth CAC readers that work with BlackBerry.
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We can't say "cockpit", "fox hole", or "kill box" anymore.
Well, not quite thousands of variables. More like about a dozen.
Before microcomputers came along, we used slide rules, like this load adjuster that was custom built for each cargo aircraft model:
You'd add up the weight in each compartment or at each station, and then it graphically showed if a load would be out of balance for different parameters (such as remaining fuel).
The other part of a loadmaster's job doesn't require calculations, but knowledge about how to tie down cargo and prevent problems with hazardous materials.