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Air Force to purchase up to 18,000 iPads

By | March 5, 2012, 4:00 AM PST

In a further demonstration of the iPad’s multipurpose functionality, the U.S. Air Force has awarded a $9.36 million contract to purchase up to 18,000 units of Apple’s best-selling tablet. The order becomes one of the military’s biggest orders of tablets to date.

The award was granted to Phoenix-based computer services company Executive Technology Inc. The Air Force intends to use the devices to replace piles of paper manuals and charts pilots would normally need to bring aboard, echoing a trend towards tablet use in commercial airlines.

The move promises to improve efficiency and will allow aircrews access to flight publications both on and off the aircraft, according to Captain Kathleen Ferrero, a military spokeswoman.

The iPads the military has contracted to buy retail for $599 (with WiFi access and 32 GB of space). The Air Force is acquiring them at a discounted rate of around $520 per device.

Ferrero indicated that the award does not mean the Air Force will purchase all 18,000 devices. The number purchased will depend on funding requests and approval.

The 63 iPad 2s the Air Force has already bought from Executive Technology will be delivered within 30 days and will undergo testing.

Photo: Apple

via [Bloomberg]

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Channtal Fleischfresser

About Channtal Fleischfresser

Channtal Fleischfresser is a contributing editor for SmartPlanet.

Channtal Fleischfresser

Channtal Fleischfresser

Contributing Editor

Channtal Fleischfresser has worked for The Economist, WNET/Channel 13, Al Jazeera English, Wall Street Journal and Associated Press. She holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She is based in New York.

Follow her on Twitter.

Channtal Fleischfresser

Channtal Fleischfresser

Channtal does not have financial holdings that would influence how or what she covers.

She writes for SmartPlanet and is not an employee of CBS.

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+2 Votes
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Ipad for Air Force?
As the world becomes more technologically advanced; it becomes more technologically dependent. This however, is its ???Achilles heel??? so to speak. As this technology becomes increasingly complex and refined, it becomes more vulnerable to an EMP attack. When an individual country relies on such frail, delicate electronic systems to run the economy, industry and the military, it inevitably leaves itself open to its enemies. We are readily leaving ourselves to be blinded by our own technology.
Read: EMP by Cuger Brant and you will understand the precarious situation that ???technology??? puts us all in.
Posted by Cuger Brant
5th Mar 2012
-1 Votes
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What of waste of our taxes AGAIN!
And I'm sure 17,000 of those iPads will go missing within a few months of delivery happy
Posted by Dcxdan
5th Mar 2012
+1 Vote
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Hmmmm
How much waste is there reprinting the 40 pounds of flight charts and approach plates as soon as they become outdated?
Posted by ShockMe
5th Mar 2012
+2 Votes
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I doubt and EMP would make things much worse....
....just because the charts are electronic. The aircraft's other electronic systems are far more vulnerable and much more problematic if they fail.
Posted by ShockMe
5th Mar 2012
+1 Vote
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shields up
As a retired A.F. personnel I can tell you, fighter and bomber aircraft electronics are shielded against EMP's, otherwise they wouldn't be able to release nuclear weapons.
One problem I see is if the ipad battery or the unit itself fails (perhaps from an EMP), your SOL. And you know that there are going to be some failures among all those ipads they bought.
Each of these units needs to be individually checked to make sure they don't have any "Phone Home" hardware or software. I'd be surprised if the Chinese didn't have this capability built in to the hardware.....
Posted by Tinman57
5th Mar 2012
+2 Votes
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18,000 chances for the Chinese to infiltrate our Military
Since every Ipad is made in some Chinese assembly plant I guess I'd be a little concerned about how secure these devices are! If the tables were turned don't you think the NSA or CIA would take full advantage of the situation to garner information from our biggest trading partner and potential enemy?
Posted by RCBeltz
5th Mar 2012
+1 Vote
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Overseas suppliers and our military.
Karl Marx once said "when the capitalists are ready to hang themselves, they will place bids on the rope". Buying vital components made in a rival communist country makes no sense whatever. All the Chinese have to do is embed a virus in this Ipad and the war would be over. We would be as surprised as Stalin was when the last soviet steel supply train was headed into nazi occupied territory as the wehrmacht rolled over the fronteir of the soviet-nazi nonagression pact demarcation line. Only problem is, our planes will be attacking our own targets under Chinese remote control. Or they could send the aircraft off course. Or they could design the batteries to explode at very specific times. The more complex the components, the easier to hide things. Remember the Chinese Dell laptop batteries that spontaneously combusted? It would be wisest to manufacture vital military components right here in the USA. That goes from shoes and socks, caps, and anything else. The Japanese threw all the steel we sold them before WWII back at us when they attacked. This situation is worse. It is worse than the civil war suppliers who sold combat boots with cardboard soles to the Union. We are buying from our potential adversary with every Chinese purchase. Perhaps they own us.
Posted by Arctic Char
Updated - 5th Mar 2012
+1 Vote
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$520 savings each?
Hang on a moment. That's the exact same unit I purchased yet mine was only $840 delivered. If we do the math, then now the exact same unit I got would cost $1,119 if they didn't get the discount. Gov money being saved - maybe, but perhaps there's a glitch as far as how much. Meanwhile I don't think the Air Force will see their IPad's being stolen. These are professionals who need the tool. When you're working on planes costing millions, having more info readily available makes good common sense. If you're using an IPad you understand why. If you don't own one, then of course you don't understand why. They really are great devices that do more more than pretty much anything else out there.
Posted by bobinmo1
6th Mar 2012
0 Votes
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Read it again.
The article says regular price for the iPad is $599. The Air Force is buying then for $520 each. That's a savings of $79 each. That's still not a bad markup for something that only cost $326 to build.
Posted by DLClark
Updated - 6th Mar 2012
0 Votes
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Buying electronic devices...
from a possible future adversary, is insane. You ever heard of the Trojan Horse. This decision in the future may come back, to bite someone in the ***.
Posted by blackjack861@...
8th Mar 2012
0 Votes
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Air Force to purchase up to 18,000 iPads
That's great until they have a device failure. Then it's, "Dude, where are my charts and manuals".
Posted by bb_apptix
10th Apr 2012
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