Combat Computing

The computers that go into battle alongside
warfighters must withstand the extreme
forces that come with combat.

Information acquisition and dissemination are almost as critical to today’s warfighter in the field as guns and ammo. Increasingly, portable computers need to serve as the “human-machine” interface between ground troops and their robotic partners, such as UAVs and other unmanned vehicles. Mobile computers are used not only to control these systems, but also to receive and exploit the data received by their sensors and surveillance equipment.

Military IT personnel and the manufacturers of military computer hardware agree that battlefield-ready computing systems are essential to mission success. And that means that portable computers—it’s really a misnomer to call these ruggedized computers “laptops” —have to be built to take a beating. “In the DoD space we really are dealing with a much harsher environment than we find in any other user,” explained Timothy Hill, group manager, product marketing, General Dynamics C4 Systems. “In addition their access to replacement parts to get damaged units repaired is much more difficult, so the goal is to keep these computers working as long as possible in the field.”

Like any system or electronic device put onto the battlefield, a computer must meet the 810F standards, which stipulate that any such piece of gear must be subject to the extremes of the environment in which it will be used. That includes high and low temperatures, shock, rain, dust, sand, wind, gunfire and more—all of which are conditions that are nothing new to the testing labs of the suppliers of ruggedized computers.

“At Panasonic we test for shock, water penetration and dust penetration,” said Peter Romness, national sales manager, Panasonic Computer Solutions Co., U.S. Army Division. “We meet or exceed 810F standards in most cases when we design a product. The U1, our handheld device, recently passed a 6-foot drop test. That’s unheard of in mil-spec testing. Typically they go up to 4 feet. We take a single Toughbook and take it through the entire suite of 810F tests, and that single unit will withstand all of those tests.”

U.S. Special Operations Command Tactical Local Area Network (TACLAN), which is tasked with interconnecting deployed elements of the Special Operations Forces (SOF) through mobile IT infrastructure and applications, use only two notebooks within the program, and they are both Panasonic Toughbooks, the T52 and the T19.

THE CHALLENGES

Mobile computing is essential to today’s warfighter. All armed forces in the field rely on mobility, but size, weight, power consumption and security are particularly important for special ops. Mobile computers need to withstand extreme environs and offer extended battery life, yet still be small and lightweight enough to easily fit in a field pack.

Besides the extremes of weather and potential shock and ballistic trauma, our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have faced another real computer killer: dust. According to Romness there is a fine dust that is all encompassing in these theaters of operation. It is so pervasive that he knows of even ruggedized computers other than the Toughbooks that fail within 30 days of use in this environment, basically choked by the dust. “Our product is fanless,” he said. “Along with our seals, that is what gets us very high IP ratings, ingress ratings, on both dust and liquid penetration.”

On the other hand, General Dynamics does use a fan system, and the company believes it does great things for the product. “Here’s what a fan does for you,” said Hill. “You put a fan in that unit that is completely sealed, you can then use heat pipes to draw heat from all the major components to that fan and out of the unit. If dust does get in, since the system is completely sealed, it cannot do any damage, and it can be washed out without any water ingress. The big difference in Itronix products versus other companies that do dust protection is that we protect everything, even behind our connectors. Our seals are protected inside, so you have a much greater chance of the seal maintaining its performance over time.”

There have long been commercially available rugged computers, but few if any of these computers that may have been built to survive business travel, or the occasional coffee spill, can take the rigors of warfare. Rugged military computers are subject to brutal conditions and literal poundings during testing to emulate battlefield conditions. Manufacturers destroy hundreds of units a year, pushing them to their limits and beyond. According to suppliers, if there was one word that summed up the military’s needs when it comes to mobile computing, it’s dependability.

As per Hill, “It’s really all about keeping a notebook in the field working at all times. What does that really translate to in terms of the product itself? It goes into three areas for these guys: drop protection, liquid ingress and dust ingress. We learned a lot from the Air Force environment. Our computers are used extensively [by maintenance crews] on the flight line to receive technical orders. So wherever their wrench goes, their notebook goes. We had one guy ask us, ‘How cold does your notebook work in?’ And I said, ‘Well we go down to -4 degrees.’ He says, ‘-4? I gotta work in -22.’ So we said, ‘Well if you have to work in -22, then we’d better build a notebook that works at -22.’”

“Panasonic destroys over 1,000 machines a year taking them to failure to push the envelope,” said Fed de Gastyne, business development manager, federal government sales team, Panasonic Computer Solutions Co. “We have developed our products with the military in mind. We have over 100,000 machines deployed, and of those units for our fully rugged machines, we have a sub 1.5 percent failure rate per year.”

KEY PLAYERS

There are those who believe that Toughbooks have set the standard for rugged computing. If that is true there are quite a few offerings nipping at their heels. Some of those are from familiar consumer brands such as Dell, and others from companies such as DRS Tactical Systems, a name probably not so recognizable to those outside of the military.

DRS, based in Melbourne, Fla., specializes in providing tactical computers for integration with military vehicles. Their JV-5 rugged vehicle system has been installed on many U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps vehicles as part of the Force XXI Battle Command, Brigade and Below (FBCB2) and Blue Force Tracking Digitization programs.

The goal of FBCB2 and BFT is to provide reliable up-to-the-minute tactical and command and control information in real time from brigade level on down. With that in mind, the JV-5s have been designed to provide troops with the ability to use GPS information to identify and track friendly and enemy combatants, and interface with ground-based radio and satellite communications. According to the company, the ruggedized computer system “provides computers mounted in users’ vehicles that are probably more capable than the ones that sit on their desks back in garrison.”

General Dynamics Corp. has a long history of providing technology and weapon systems to the military. Its Itronix Corp. builds sophisticated and ruggedized computing solutions for all branches of the military.

Formerly known as the “Go Books” product line, General Dynamics provides three commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) ruggedized computer systems to the military. The GD8000, The GD6000 and the Go Book MR1 mini-ruggedized portable— soon to be renamed the GD2000. While the units are commercially available hardware, Itronix will customize them to the needs of the user, as Hill explains. “We provide COTS-based products for the military, but we will in some instances make modifications that will adapt a product better for a specific user. This is especially true of the GD2000 handheld, which is easily customizable with specific ports that can be used to optimize the mission of a given user, which has proved to be very valuable for special ops.”

Panasonic also has recently introduced an ultra portable ruggedized computer small enough to fit in a cargo pocket. The U1 is being utilized by forward troops for everything from HMMWV maintenance to navigating UAVs. According to de Gastyne, “It is the toughest Toughbook we have ever made.”

According to company figures, more than 30,000 ruggedized computers and peripherals have been supplied under contract to the U.S. Army over the years by VT Miltope. Based in Alabama, VT Miltope is a subsidiary of Vision Technology Systems. VT’s line of ruggedized computers includes the TSC-750M. Meeting or exceeding all MIL standards for drop, shock and water/ dust ingress, it also delivers some of the most powerful 3-D graphics found in any ruggedized laptop, crucial in fulfilling the enhanced visual needs of today’s warfighter. VT also has an ultra-portable laptop—the Pony PCU. It weighs less than 8 pounds, can survive a 3-foot drop, and has proved itself in many tactical applications.

Dell offers the Dell Latitude E6400 XFR, a fully ruggedized and armored notebook. According to the company, the E6400 was designed and engineered to be the highest-performing fully rugged laptop in its class. Dell clams that its exclusive Ballistic Armor Protection System “meets or exceeds real-world and military standards,” and its PrimoSeal technology has the highest combined level of ingress protection rating (shielding from dust and moisture) of any notebook in its class. According to Brett McAnally, director, Dell Product Group, “We incorporated innovations on behalf of our customers to create a one-of-a-kind system that offers advanced security, more durability, and exceptional ease-of-use for an overall user experience that’s simply unmatched in the industry today.” The E6400 XFR was recently showcased at the Federal Office Systems Exposition (FOSE), held in Washington, D.C.

In 1989 Mitac and the General Electric Aerospace Group formed a joint venture creating Getac. Ever since, Getac Inc. has been supplying DoD with electronics ruggedized for military applications. The A790 is the flagship of its line. According to company specs, the A790 is an extremely rugged notebook that not only meets MILSTD 810F and IP54 ratings, but also satisfies critical EMI shielding requirements. Getac claims that its propriety Sunlight Readable Technology enables daylight display viewability that is more than six times better than conventional mobile computer displays, without compromising battery life. Recently Getac introduced a series of upgrades to its V100 fully rugged convertible computer. In a company press release announcing the new features, Jim Rimay, president, Getac Inc., said, “The V100 fully rugged convertible has been very popular because of its advanced feature set and super bright 1200 NITs screen. With better performance, memory, storage and wireless capabilities, the new Getac V100 is more advanced, flexible as ever, and even better suited for mobile field workers and any users of rugged notebook PCs.”

Concentrating on PDAs and other small-ruggedized devices rather than fullblown notebooks is Handheld USA. Products include PDAs and tablets that have all been designed to face a variety of environmental conditions. Specific units for military application meet or exceed all MIL-STD 810F specs, such as the Recon, which is dustproof, waterproof and operates in extreme temperatures from -22 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit.

HOW TOUGH IS TOUGH?

All of these rugged computers go though hours and hours of grueling tests. But just how tough is tough? Dell says the E6400 survived a 4-foot drop with the system powered down and closed, and a 3-foot drop operating with the LCD open. Panasonic has successfully dropped the U-1 Toughbook from 6 feet, which is unprecedented. Obviously making a rugged computer for the military isn’t only about meeting the standards. For example, to make mil-spec for a 36-inch drop test, you have to drop a notebook 26 times, to be sure it hits every surface at every angle. But you can drop five computers, and only one of them needs to survive to pass.

“But that is just not acceptable in the military space,” said General Dynamics’ Hill. “If it takes you five notebooks to pass a test, you are really talking about six drops maximum that this thing is going to take. That is just not acceptable in the military world. In addition, in the industry we arbitrarily created this 36-inch high desktop height to drop from. Well have you ever been on top of a HMMWV? It’s considerably higher than 36 inches. So the first thing we did was say we have to get through all the drops with one unit. That is very realistic and a lot more appropriate for a unit that is going to be out in the field for five years.”

Hill went on to say that General Dynamics now tests from 42 inches, which is more reflective of real-world use, and that it tests all of its notebooks with the power on.

Tests are one thing, but just how tough is tough, especially outside of the testing labs and in the real world? There have been General Dynamics computers that have slid off the back of pick-up trucks and bounced off of concrete, and Hill relates a story of a state trooper, who in pursuit of a fleeing suspect, rolled his cruiser over several times, totaling the vehicle. Suspended upside down strapped into his seat belt, he was able to report the accident via his undamaged notebook.

There are many reports from Iraq of ruggedized computers that have literally saved lives.

“I can’t tell you the name of the soldier,” relates Panasonic’s Romness, “but I was working a trade show, and a soldier came up to me and said, ‘I need to tell you something: We were on patrol in Iraq, and my notebook was in my backpack. An IED went off, and several of our guys went down. I am here talking to you because that Toughbook was on my back.’ All of the fragments were taken by the Toughbook and saved his life.”

WHAT’S NEXT

No doubt in the years ahead the need to acquire and use tactical data—and the increased use of robotic combat vehicles such as UAVs and other unmanned systems— will lead to a dramatic increase in the need for mobile computing on the battlefield.

We will see an increased use of ruggedized computers in all shapes and sizes. However, we may also see increased use of “slave computers”—that is, computers that are small, lightweight and effectively “disposable” because they have no hard drive. Such computers, such as General Dynamics’ thin client, could be of particular interest to special forces. David Miles with General Dynamics explains, “In special operations specifically you are dealing with forces that are going somewhere, and if they have to leave in a hurry, they often cannot take their equipment with them. This thin client architecture allows for a small, lightweight portable device that is networked securely to a data center, and leaves no footprint if the unit itself needs to be left behind.”

Panasonic’s de Gastyne agrees that tomorrow’s warfighter will be increasingly dependent on mission-critical computing, and believes ruggedization along with wireless security will become more and more important. “I think we will see the military working with manufacturers to better protect data in transit, so that we will be better able to leverage the powerful wireless capabilities of our ruggedized computers.”

Wherever the solutions come from, and whatever shape they take, the fully automated battlefield is no longer light-years away. ♦

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