iPads Now Helping Marines Unleash Hell →

I know technological advances usher in unintended, often unwanted consequences. I get that. But technophiles, even Apple fanatics, need not be cheerleaders for war.

Wired’s Mark Riffee provides this disappointingly uncritical look at the use of iPads in aerial warfare [read: US marines bombing the shit out of people]:

The Marines recently took a baby step towards a more efficient future when the 3rd Aircraft Wing bought 32 iPads. The total purchase — not quite $20,000 worth of tablets and accessories, according to Defense News — was merely “a hiccup in the grand scheme of defense spending,” a former deputy G-3 for operations pointed out. But it could be a crucial advance in aerial warfare.

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Tablets are not new on the military scene — air controllers have been using them for several years now. But these devices are the dinosaurs of the evolutionary timeline of tablets. Military officials have been pushing for the incorporation of updated smart devices in combat situations, but no real progress has been made as of yet. Maybe the Marines’ $20,000-gamble will be a first victory.

If iPads are as effective in aerial strikes as hoped, it’s easy to imagine that helicopters will soon be fitted with tablets or, more likely, a similar system will be mounted on their control panels.

The innovation curve would likely be pretty steep in the military tablet realm just as it is in the consumer market. Software developers have already come up with a variety of apps geared toward military efficacy, including a few that can differentiate friendlies from insurgents, and Darpa is hard at work on a way to keep smart devices powered-up during lengthy missions.

It’s nice to know the military is learning to navigate with devices and apps like the ones my friends and I use to zero in on, say, a coffee shop we’ve never been to. Now we just have to make sure the Department of Defense restricts access to Angry Birds and Pocket Frogs during missions.