New DOD Mobile Device Plan

   In the past, the military has experienced great difficulty with maintaining up to date software as it pertains to mobile and wireless devices. The reason being that the market is changing too quickly for the military to keep up. In an effort to correct this problem,  the Department of Defense has released a new plan that would enable it to have greater control over the usage of tablets and smartphones. Ultimately, the goal of the plan is to get more of these devices into the hands of soldiers. 

Currently, many of those that work in the military believe that this change is far overdue because of the fact that the military is using equipment that is expensive and out of date. The defense department currently holds a very expensive contract with Blackberry in which it pays more than $3,000 per device, so that the phone will be able to read classified information. This new plan will allow the military to work with more commercial vendors, so that they can reduce the costs of these devices. Generally, most soldiers own technology that far exceeds the capacity of the Blackberries that are currently issued to members of the military. The DOD's plan will help to reduce the costs of tablet and smartphone technology, so that the military will be better able to keep up with the changing technological environment.

According to the Department of Defense, the Commercial Device Implementation Plan will help to improve "three areas critical to mobility: mobile devices, wireless infrastructure, and mobile applications, and works to ensure these areas remain reliable, secure and flexible to keep up with fast-changing technology." The immediate impacts of the plan will be that several operational pilots will be introduced throughout the DOD in an effort to determine the devices that would best suit the military's needs. Additionally, the plan will promote the further use of mobile applications in an effort to "improve functionality, decrease costs, and enable increased personal productivity." Furthermore, the plan will help the military develop a streamlined process by which it can approve and distribute new forms of technology. Initial plans will support 100,000 devices offered on a subscription only basis by early 2014.

Logistically, the new plan can be both beneficial and hurtful to our military in the future. One of the benefits of the new plan is that greater use of tablets will facilitate easier distribution of information as it pertains to supplies. Further expansion of this technology will allow commanders to constantly keep track on the movement and location of their supplies. Also, these tablets will allow information to be inputted and uploaded to various databases quicker and decrease the military's dependency on paper. Despite these positives, there are some serious negative repercussions that will be felt as a result of increasing our dependency on modern technology. The primary negative relates to military's tooth to tail ratio. By increasing the operational complexity of our operating systems, we will be increasing the size of our logistical tail.  As a military, this technology will enable us to be more effective with less combat capability, but we will have to increase the amount of resources used in maintaining this technology. Future conflicts could potentially be heavily impacted by greater use of tablets and smartphones because their use will require a greater amount of resources  for  upkeep and maintenance. These devices may also have to be replaced in large quantities given the rough nature of all military operations. Therefore, the upkeep and replacement of these devices can be very expensive.

Given the looming effects of sequestration and the recent state of our nation's economy, it is hard to say whether we will be able to afford the logistics involved in the distribution and maintenance of these new devices. Supplying hundreds of thousands of soldiers with new smartphones and tablets will take a huge chunk out the Defense Department's budget, and with the economic situation, that budget is not likely to increase for a long time.Therefore, budget constraints will likely limit the implementation of the new mobile plan. This is another prime example of how logistics is influenced by a nation's economy, and how the latter often prevents the increase of one's strategic and operational capabilities.