DISA eyes tablets and smartphones for Europe, Mideast and Africa

While Apple and Google have yet to win government security certification for their operating systems that power smartphones and tablets, the Defense Information Systems Agency signaled in a notice to industry Tuesday that it wants to use commercial mobile devices in its network.

DISA has to replace two existing contracts that provide wireless services and hardware for forces in the European Command, Central Command and African Command. Any new contract should include smartphones and tablets that run on the Apple, Android and Microsoft operating systems, according to the work statement included with its request for information on European telecommunications requirements, which includes end users in Europe, the Mideast, Afghanistan and Africa.

The agency also wants to beef up this network with wireless nodes and hardware that connect cellular networks to Wi-Fi wireless local area networks using commercial Mi-Fi hardware sold to home users by carriers such as Verizon Wireless and Sprint. Developed by Novatel Wireless of San Diego, Mi-Fi is a mobile wireless router that uses commercial cellular carriers to connect to the Internet. The router supports up to five Wi-Fi users, allowing those with the gear to create their own mobile Wi-Fi hot spot.

Warren Suss, president of Suss Consulting, said the DISA European RFI indicates that it is no longer a question of whether or not the Defense Department will embrace iPads, iPhones and rival Android devices but when. He said the fact that DISA plans to buy smartphones and tablets for use in combat theaters amounts to a strong endorsement of the technology.

DISA's plans to acquire Mi-Fi hot spots also indicates that the agency wants quickly adapt latest in commercial technology for military use, Suss said. Novatel introduced its Mi-Fi product line in 2009, and reported Oct. 31 that it has sold 3 million of the mobile hot spots. The agency's plans to use Mi-Fi also raises the intriguing possibility that the new European network could support tactical users in the field, Suss said.

The fact that neither Apple nor Google has yet received certification from the National Institutes of Standards and Technology that their mobile phones and tablets conform to Federal Information Processing Standard 140-2, which establishes wireless security standards, could be a stumbling block, Suss said.

DISA did not specify FIPS 140-2 standard for Apple and Android tablets in the request for information, but it did mandate that standard for cellphones equipped with Bluetooth short-range wireless communications that support headsets and printing.

The Veterans Affairs Department, which plans to deploy up to 100,000 iPads, will use mobile device management services that control and protect data from a central location and lock down configuration settings. VA Chief Information Officer Roger Baker said he decided to use mobile device management because he believed it unlikely Apple will engineer a FIPS 140-2-compliant device as the federal government is simply too small a portion of its market.

Tom Karygiannis, a senior researcher at the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, said in a Nov. 4 briefing that tests of an open source FIPS 140-2 module for Android should be completed by February 2012. He said open source software can reduce the cost and delays of deploying the latest technology, especially for mobile devices.

Besides hardware, DISA also plans the new European contract to replace an existing network used by the Army 5th Signal Command for international direct dialing and a cellular contract held by United Kingdom-based Vodafone. Vendors must reply to the DISA request for information by Nov. 22.