Developing for the DoD

When we think of the Pocket PC and its uses, what first comes to mind are PIMs, then e-mail, Word, and Excel. The Pocket PC is well known as a tool for the business person--the Road Warrior. Not so familiar are all the uses of the Pocket PC for the actual warrior--the War Fighter--the person in the military whose job it is to defend the country.

It turns out there is great market potential for the Pocket PC in the Department of Defense. We will examine one application in use by an interservice program named the Joint Aviation Technical Data Integration (JATDI) and how the development cycle works.

Some background

My first passion is software development for the Pocket PC and integration with the desktop. Ever since the day that I talked my government team leader out of his unused Jornada 680 handheld, I have been involved in software development for the Pocket PC for the Department of Defense.

Day to day my primary functions are to serve as backup Webmaster for the Scout Attack and Apache helicopter Web sites and to do research and development for the Pocket PC. I can't think of a better job than one where I get paid really well for my addiction--playing with really neat tools.

Early on I was given free rein to explore the Pocket PC and to find areas of interest to the Department of Defense. As I developed ideas and presented them to various levels of rank at military bases, as well as at briefings at the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command Headquarters in Huntsville, Alabama, people began to pay attention to this new technology and wanted to know how it could be used to support their favorite program. And that's when the fun really began.

So let's take a brief look at one such project for the Army Apache Longbow program.

The developing cycle

Requirements

The Program Managers for the Army Apache helicopter had been aware of the kinds of software that I was prototyping and had been briefed a number of times about them. At the same time one of the primary requirements for new development appeared: money. It didn't quite fall from the sky, but it did become available to the program when it was decided that the Pocket PC would be a great tool to put in the hands of pilots, crew chiefs, and mechanics.

I had firsthand experience of this need at the annual users' conference for the Black Hawk helicopter (the UH-60) in Dallas. The whole time I was demoing prototype software on my Jornada I had pilots coming to me showing me their iPAQs and asking if I could write software for them.

Current regulations dictate that the aircraft must have a ruggedized notebook computer onboard at all times the aircraft is in use. Unfortunately, notebooks are too big and bulky to use while flying with two hands and two feet. Some Black Hawk pilots refused to use the notebook, though it was on the aircraft--per regulations. Instead they were taking a number of their checklists and manuals along with them on every flight. All of this information was typed into either Word or Excel and loaded onto their Pocket PCs. They would put some Velcro on the back of the Pocket PC and on their kneeboard, and use the Pocket PC as a notepad, pre-flight checklist, and more.

Then early this past summer a recently retired Apache Longbow (AH-64) pilot from Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, envisioned two applications that would be highly useful to both himself and his crew chief. The first was an electronic logbook. The second application was to be used by mechanics and crew chiefs in maintaining the aircraft. He expressed the same frustrations as the Black Hawk pilots with the regulation that requires notebook computers to be onboard. He said that he shoved his under the back seat! Can you imagine trying to use a touchpad or a mouse while flying an Apache Longbow? It was obvious that an electronic logbook on a notebook computer was not going to work.

He showed the program managers his Pocket PC, a Jornada 567. He also showed them the same kind of information that the Black Hawk pilots had shown to me, and told them how he used it on his kneeboard. The need was there and with that need came the second important step in the development cycle--a set of requirements.