Raytheon [RTN] has developed a mobile device application designed to enhance intelligence sharing on commercially-available smartphones and tablet computers.
The application, called Raytheon Advanced Tactical System (RATS) 2.0, is available now and is designed for those on the front lines of both civilian life and the military. Raytheon said in a statement RATS 2.0 is ideal for those on the battlefield or in special operations, search and rescue, disaster recovery, law enforcement and other first responder-type jobs.
RATS 2.0 is capable of running on commercially available mobile devices running the Android operating system (OS) 4.0 or higher. RATS 2.0 is not available for Apple iPhones yet, but Jamie Rogers, manager of Raytheon’s defense and civilian mission solutions team, said recently the company is looking into it.
RATS 2.0 is designed to enable device users fast access to critical data or situational awareness intelligence data from anywhere at any time. RATS 2.0 users can connect to available networks via Wi-Fi internet, 3G, 4G and tactical radios to receive tactical communication and collaborate with other device users via texting, voice, full-motion video, imagery, map overlays and other tools.
Rogers said one of RATS 2.0’s best features is its ease of use to anyone familiar with a smartphone.
“We spent a lot of money on the user interface to make it pretty intuitive to anyone who is familiar with smartphones, so it is pretty easy to use,” Rogers said.
RATS 2.0 can enable users to selectively view an unmanned aerial vehicle’s (UAV) back-end feed through its full motion video streaming dataport while enabling the rapid dissemination of video to inform users of real-time information.
Larri Rosser, Raytheon’s Appsmart chief engineer, said recently the company has developed a portable server called RATS Manager that allows users, including those using RATS 2.0, to link up with different tactical communications options.
RATS 2.0 also includes secure FIPS140-2 encryption to create a trusted environment for collaboration among users. FIPS is a United States government computing security standard.
While RATS 2.0 resembles and functions like a regular Android operating system, Rosser said it is best to think of RATS 2.0 as a “super app” that doesn’t interact much with the base operating system, but runs with it.
“If you have an app that’s developed that way for the military, and we do have some that exist, they can be put into that suite and interoperate with the standard things,” Rosser said.
Rossi also said Raytheon has other military apps, including a surface management app, which can identify a place to put a camp or a landing zone for a helicopter or a plane. Rossi said Raytheon also has facial recognition app, a few translation apps and a geometry app to help people figure distances.
Raytheon also has a Layered Environmental Analysis and Forecasting (LEAF) app, which is a collection of environmental and base data layers from an array of weather sensors and satellites. LEAF delivers advanced functionality to forecasters in the field, equipping them with the information they need to predict weather and issue time-sensitive warnings.