The Army has created a means to send mission-specific applications and data to soldiers’ mobile devices, via a “tactical marketplace” built to resemble the functionality of Apple’s App Store or the Android Market.

The critical difference is the platform, called Tacmark, also lets a designated commander or leader send applications to the devices of his subordinates, said Steven P. Mazza, of Handheld/Tactical Technology branch of the Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center’s Command, Power & Integration directorate.

“If you’re walking around here at Aberdeen [Proving Ground, Md.] or the Pentagon and you have a commercial tablet or smartphone, you can reach into Army’s enterprise marketplace, browse around and pick and choose what you want,” Mazza said. “But it doesn’t work that way when lives are on the line. When lives are on the line, people are issued things.”

Tacmark is built in-house at CERDEC. Its creators say it is complementary to the Army Software Marketplace launched in March, which today contains mostly commercial applications.

As with a commercial app store, Tacmark allows users to browse and post feedback — but it also allows applications to be pushed out to soldiers from above them in the chain of command.Click here to read more

Edric Thompson The Army’s increasing use of handheld devices includes TACMARK, which gives soldiers access to the data they need in the war zone, such as manuals, regulations and maps. Photo by