Silicon Valley techies suit up Army with sleeker gear

["Ken Garlington" <ken.garlington@computer.org>]

(A quick excerpt from a recent USA Today article:)

"The early Land Warrior software rarely worked... To troubleshoot, in early
1999 Jette brought in high-tech consultants Exponent, a Silicon Valley firm
that studies engineering and structural failures and accidents. The firm
felt that Raytheon had followed Army specs for the project too closely. The
old prototype had to be trashed and a new computer and radio system built...
The Silicon Valley engineers slapped together a crude model in three months.
They went to retailers Best Buy and Fry's Electronics and bought several
cheap, off-the-shelf products, including Microsoft Windows CE software and a
wireless card to allow Land Warrior computers to send data. The most
critical technical step: They wrote the software in common programming
language used by most software engineers, rather than using old government
programming language, as Raytheon had.... Soldiers say the newest Land
Warrior is the best version yet... Its Microsoft Windows 2000 software still
has bugs but is nearing the project goal of 10 days of use without breaking
down."

(The full article can be found at:)

http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/02/07/tech-military.htm