How an Android app is helping commandos call Close Air Support faster

An integral component of modern U.S. battlefield superiority is air power. More specifically, the ability to call in effective and timely close air support (CAS) provides ground troops with a crucial advantage over their opponents, whether these are Taliban fighters in the mountains of Afghanistan, ISIS terrorists in the deserts of Iraq, or Russian mercenaries in the plains of Syria.

To facilitate CAS, the U.S. military is utilizing Joint Attack Terminal Controllers (JTACs) who are embedded with ground troops and can talk “Air Force.” JTACs come in all sorts of sizes and uniforms: They can be Air Force Combat Controllers, qualified Green Berets or Navy SEALs, and Tactical Control Air Party airmen, among other war-fighters. However, with great power comes great responsibility.

A JTAC often has to make split-second decisions under fire that can either obliterate an enemy machine gun position or kill an innocent family sheltered from the fighting. Consequently, JTACs have had to follow a lengthy procedure for calling CAS. But lengthy also means dangerously slow, especially when under fire.