Raytheon ran an article in the Washington Post that highlights ATAK’s use by Raytheon. The title of the article is “Soldier with 100 eyes. Here’s an excerpt from the article.
The app that saves lives
A tablet is only as effective as the program it runs. Raytheon BBN Technologies, one of the company’s advanced research centers, helped develop that program: ATAK, or Android Tactical Assault Kit, which allows soldiers to chat, share video, map points of interest and plan routes, sharing information in real time. And it runs on off-the-shelf Android tablets and smartphones.
“It started out as a dynamic, moving map, but now ATAK has become a full situational awareness app with a lot of features built in for specific users,” said Joe Loyall, a principal scientist at Raytheon BBN.
The app can be customized. Jump Master, for example, a version for paratroopers, delivers detailed data on wind direction, target zones and even their progress on the way down.
Raytheon, one of a handful of core organizations behind ATAK, is continuing its development.
“We are working to develop a decentralized version of ATAK and ATAK servers together, so users will be able to reach back to other organizations, other databases, to get information,” Loyall said.
Ultimately, ATAK could fly a vehicle carrying a sensor to a specific location to collect information.
