ADS Inc has launched an app, available in the Apple Apps store which renders well on both iPad and iPhone.
The app provides direct access to ADS catalogs and other publications, offering a sampling of the thousands of products available for unit and agency orders from ADS, Inc. In fact, you can even request a quote, directly from the app. You’ll also have a calendar of ADS events, right at your fingertips.
Get yours at apps.apple.com/us/app/ads-inc
ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. (Sept. 23, 2020) — The U.S. Army is hosting a virtual workshop to expedite the development and integration of situational awareness tools Sept. 29 – Oct. 2.
The Tactical Assault Kit (TAK) is a map-based software application that enables coordination among thousands of users with features such as a position data, chat, mission planning and shared overlays. It is compatible with Android, Apple iOS and Windows.
The Tactical Assault Kit virtual offsite will offer stakeholders from across the Department of Defense (DoD), federal agencies and industry an opportunity to exchange information and identify critical needs. The event will offer tracks for software development, programmatic updates and training on TAK platforms.
“The intent of these sessions is to learn from issues that may have arisen in the past year, produce innovative capabilities and reduce duplicative efforts,” said Josh Sterling, director of the TAK Product Center at the The Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) Center – a component of Army Futures Command’s Combat Capabilities Development Command.
“Any time we can get more feedback and lessons learned, it’s a data point we can use to improve the platform. I think this is a great way to generate cross-team collaboration that will spur both the development cycle and integration as we continue to push and facilitate a more universal type TAK operation.”
As the central software development hub for all TAK efforts, including 15 DoD programs of record, the C5ISR Center’s TAK Product Center provides software updates and testing for an enhanced user experience.
To foster innovation, the TAK Product Center approved the public release of a non-military variant for federal and government agencies – known as the Android Team Awareness Kit-Civilian (ATAK-CIV) application – on Google Play and the open-source Standard ATAK Software Development Kit on TAKmaps.com.
“TAK is an extensible platform, meaning that we give you a baseline and based on your mission requirements you can build on that baseline to bridge capability gaps,” said Mark Roberts, deputy director for the TAK Product Center.
“Anyone who has a job requirement to display point location information – the military, DoD and federal agencies, state and local authorities, firefighters and emergency responders – will benefit from these sessions. This is a great opportunity to give them a peek at what’s being done around the TAK community,” he said.
Registration for the offsite is available at tak.gov/offsite until Sept. 28.
By CCDC C5ISR Center Public Affairs
AUSTIN, Texas – U.S. Army Futures Command announced the establishment of the first Soldier-led Software Factory today.
The Austin-based Software Factory is a first-of-its-kind concept for the Army that will leverage a train-with-industry pipeline to empower Soldiers and Civilians to scope and solve problems with modern software practices.
This new capability will allow units to act faster and mitigate unforeseen risk inherent in multi-domain operations. It will teach Soldiers and Civilians how to solve Army problems with cloud technology and modern software, and to better prepare Soldiers for disconnected warfare in 2028 and beyond.
“The capability to develop software at the lowest tactical levels will help us provide better software products,” said Gen. John M. Murray, commanding general of Army Futures Command. “We anticipate long-term cost savings and expect the Software Factory to help us maintain a competitive advantage across Army modernization efforts.”
This new software factory complements the Army’s digital talent initiative based at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Penn. Army professionals will attend data science and engineering graduate programs, and 12 Soldiers will attend a boot-camp-style fellowship for cloud technicians to help solve Army problems through agile and secure software development processes.
“All of these efforts will develop and sustain the digital talent the Army needs for the future,” Murray said. “The CMU-trained engineers will build the data environment the Army needs. The technicians will maintain that environment. And the Software Factory will develop the skills to operate in that environment.”
By Army Futures Command
Australian veteran owned and operated Simulation Training Group has developed a Call For Fire Mobile Application for hand-held iOS and Android devices.
Their goal was to provide Soldiers with a fun and user-friendly training simulator that can be accessed on their personal mobile phone or tablet.
The Application provides users with the ability to learn and practice basic procedures for calling/requesting Artillery using current unclassified US military procedures. It has built-in tutorials for inexperienced users and coaching to improve skills and give an After Action Review continually. The applications levels get progressively more challenging to test the user skills and application of calling for fire. Recent updates have included the ability to conduct ‘danger close’ fire missions and Arabic language.
Corporate licences are available for militaries or organisations. Corporate licences include variation in procedures, languages, and levels to suit user requirements. These versions also have the ability for supervisors to monitor users performance and progression. These functions make the application ideal for conducting remote training of indigenous forces or when soldiers are unable to access larger simulation systems (embarked forces or COVID).
Available for download at Apple Store or Google Play.
DroneShield Ltd (ASX:DRO) (“DroneShield” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce the upcoming 2Q2020 software release of its RF-based threat detector for its various counterdrone products, including body-worn RfPatrol MKIITM platform. The software upgrade will be available for all customers and fielded devices starting 1 July 2020.
RfPatrol MKIITM is a body-worn passive (non-emitting) drone detection device. As the drone threat rapidly evolves, DroneShield provides quarterly updates to ensure its customers receive continuous counterdrone protection.
2Q2020 quarter update includes a number of new drone models from multiple manufacturers, as well as performance enhancements and general firmware updates. In addition, this update includes detection and identification of signatures commonly associated with First Person View (FPV), hobbyist and homemade drones.
Oleg Vornik, DroneShield’s CEO, commented, “DroneShield is committed to keeping users of our products ahead of the quickly evolving drone threat. Rapidly adapting software is a key feature of our solutions.”
RfPatrol MKII body-worn drone detection device
For enquiries, please contact info@droneshield.com.
HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. – The Air Force Special Tactics community is known for looking at complex problems and finding new ways to accomplish the mission; when COVID-19 became a global pandemic, it was no exception.
Medical and Preservation of the Force and Family (POTFF) team members of the 24th Special Operations Wing, headquartered at Hurlburt Field, Florida, teamed up with the Air Force Research Lab to develop a way to monitor ST operators’ health status during the pandemic straight from their smartphones.
The team quickly responded by taking an existing human performance software known as, Smartabase, which identifies health risks to the force, and adding a “COVID-19 Check In” feature to monitor pre-and post-deployment health.
“We recognized the need for real-time monitoring of the force and readiness impact from COVID-19,” said Col. John Dorsch, 24th SOW surgeon general. “COVID-19 screening was a natural extension of our efforts since it is another risk to force like others for which we are monitoring, such as TBI, musculoskeletal injuries, and PTSD.”
The app feature is designed as a daily survey where users input daily temperature, possible symptoms, risk factors, exposure as well as mental health state. All the data from the ST operators is collected and alerts medical and command teams if there is anything out of the ordinary that needs to be addressed.
“This ensures commanders have important information related to their operators and allows them to make the best decisions about who goes where and does what,” said Craig Engelson, 24th SOW POTFF director. “In the past they have had to coordinate with multiple departments and multiple systems to get the same information.”
The idea stemmed from the wing’s long-standing efforts using technology and innovation to maintain operator readiness as well as ensure Special Tactics teams’ ability to perform optimally on the battlefield for years to come.
“[Special Operations Forces] can’t be mass produced,” said Dorsch “Special Tactics is a small, but incredibly important and highly specialized combat capability. This system helps protect this capability for combat operations, and our partnership with AFRL has been invaluable. We must continue to leverage technology to help us solve the nation’s hard problems.”
Dr. Adam Strang, a human performance research scientist and AFRL’s director of the Signature Tracking for Optimized Nutrition and Training (STRONG) team, has been leading the back-end development of the database as well as finding new opportunities for improvement.
“As a scientist I like to lean forward and stay on the cutting edge,” said Strang. “Often that requires taking big swings and being comfortable with risk. Special Tactics functions similarly, which makes a good pairing. Together we push the edge of technological capability in ways that AFRL could not accomplish alone.”
The technology proved successful in monitoring returning deployers, safeguarding families from health risks, as well as helping outgoing deployers meet specific country clearance requirements. The 24th SOW team also helped integrate the technology at the 1st Special Operations Medical Group at Hurlburt Field and 27th Special Operations Medical Group at Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico to monitor pre-deployment health for almost 250 Air Commandos.
“In truth I believe that we are only scratching the surface of its capabilities,” said Engelson “As our providers and commanders integrate with the system even more, there is no telling how much more useful this system could become.”
Special Tactics is the Air Force’s ground special operations force that leads global access, precision strike, personnel recovery and battlefield surgical operations. For more info on Air Force Special Tactics visit our website www.airforcespecialtactics.af.mil or follow us on social media: Twitter: @SpecialTactics_ Facebook/Instagram: @Airforcespecialtactics
24th Special Operations Wing Public Affairs Office
In order to realign efforts in accordance with the National Defense Strategy, United States Special Operations Command took a look at its Acquisition, Technology & Logistics enterprise and decided to do a little reorganization. Acquisition Executive Jim Smith made the determinant to stand up the new Program Executive Office Special Operations Forces Digital Applications. After all, Mr Smith’s goal is systems that are “Software Defined, Hardwear Enabled”.
On 1 June, 2020, PEO SOF Digital Applications will charter with US Army COL Paul Weizer at the helm. An aviator and member of the Army’s Acquisition Corps, he started out in SOCOM’s PEO Rotary Wing but was handpicked to shepherd the command’s software development. Think of the new team as the software guys. They will be the cradle-to-grave, one-stop-shop for software intensive digital applications into the SOF enterprise.
PEO SOF Digital Applications inherits it’s new portfolio from other PEOs. These include Distributed Common Ground Station – SOF, Mission Command/Common Operating Picture, Integrated Survey Program, SOF Planning, Rehearsal and Execution Preparation, Tactical Assault Kit Core, Special Operations Mission Planning Environment as well as a few others.
Along with those programs, comes personnel. But COL Weizer is hoping to attract some new talent from industry. He relates that the current PEO structure is “jello” and he is working to shape the organization to best work with industry to acquire the proper software. By no means are they “vendor locked” and he looks forward to engagement. COL Weizer also wants to look at what software the components are using and share it with more of the Force where appropriate.
Currently, as part of TAK efforts, the command operates a marketplace where operators may download specialized applications. COL Weizer related that this capability will transition to PEO SDA and he sees it as a model for software dissemination across the SOF enterprise.
The PEO will be located at MacDill AFB, With satellite offices at Ft Belvoir and Joint Base Langley-Eustis, both in Virginia.
Several years ago we showcased Tactical NAV, a Command and Control app for mobile devices.
SSD received this note from the developer.
We are still developing it and are now completely upgrading the Android platform.
Got a Facebook message from a U.S. Soldier today that I thought was worth sending your way. I’m protecting his name due to security concerns, but this happened very recently.
It’s humbling to hear that TACNAV is still making a difference for our troopers in combat – that’s what it’s all about.
Glad to hear they are still in the fight.
