The Air Force Times highlights a smartphone app that could conceivably be used by troops to direct airstrikes:

Draper Laboratory of Cambridge, Mass., is working with the Air Force Research Laboratory in Rome, N.Y., on a new program called the Android Terminal Assault Kit, or ATAK, that it said will transform the way troops request air support.

The application will allow troops in the field to open a map and, with a few screen taps, label the locations of enemy troops, civilians, friendly forces and potential evacuation points, and then securely transmit the data to inbound pilots or operations centers.

However, they’re not developing the app for the iPhone, because “the security was better” on the Android OS.

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