"George R. Gonzalez" wrote in message news:zUxgb.704095$uu5.115935@sccrnsc04...
Off-the-shelf stuff is attractive, at first glance, as it tends to be MUCH
cheaper and lighter than mil-spec equipment.

But the stuff at CompUSA wll tend to degrade and eventually die when
operated under your typical harsh mil conditions.
Your typical Dell laptop will eventually fail when subjected to the
temperature extremes, vibration, bumps, cable tugs, sand and dust that
equipment encounters in the field.

Odd. Last big (corps level) exercise I played in the Dells were
predominant in the various tactical headquarters (previous Compaqs
indeed had not stood up very well, even under harsh *office*
conditions). Most of the laptops now purchased by the military are
commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS); the day of the old "cram eight pounds
of computer into sixty pounds of military packaging and paint it
green" died with those laughable US Army SIDPERS boxes that few could
use, and even fewer bothered to actually lug out of the office and
into the field.


The mil-spec equipment will instead have 1/4 inch thick aluminum or
tuitanium cases, cables and cable connectors that you can tow a jeep with,
and lots of o-ring seals around every sliding or rotating part to keep out
sand, dust, and water.

Not when it comes to computers, at least not for the most part
anymore. NCO's and junior officers are becoming increasingly reliant
upon the commercial PDA's, and laptops have been going the commercial
route for years now.


So the $150 GPS's your mom sent will be wonderful to use for a while, but
after it has been dropped 20 times, onto rocks, sand, water, had 9mm rounds
bounce off it, you might want to pull out the clunky old mil-spec GPS, which
will still work after all that.

I seriously doubt that the issue GPS (PLGRS) receiver we received
would withstand a 9mm shot, either. It was heavier by far than the
civilian models, though it also was more accurate; but it was also a
pain to operate. The military has too often been guilty of the "gotta
have it developed exclusively for us" mentality; hence the Army battle
command software that required oodles of specialized training, and was
then cumbersome as all get out. Much better to take advantage of the
skills that the troops have already picked up elsewhere (i.e., use of
HTML and commercial browsers--worked great at the division level for
my old division, after being developed by a few troopies in the 3rd
ID(M)).

The silver lining, of sorts, is that the DoD still runs the COTS
competition every year, where various commercial products are proposed
for military use; it and other COTS programs have resulted in a few
nice things for the military services (like a commercially
manufactured panel bridge being used by the Army from the Mabey Bridge
folks in the UK). Without spending ten billion dollars for superfluous
R&D. Good deal.

Brooks