Why choose between two consumer cell phone services when you could just slip your iPhone into this gigantic case and gain access to the military's personal 3G network instead?
Lockheed Martin's MONAX iPhone case is designed to enable normal smartphones (like the iPhone) to operate on the secure 3G network that the military uses. This network includes infrastructure on vehicles and aerial platforms and even satellites, ensuring that soldiers are never without a fast and reliable connection.
The idea behind MONAX comes from the fact that Lockheed noticed that "back in Iraq most of the calls for fire were happening over commercial cell phones, not military radios." And why shouldn't they? Cell phones are intuitive and easy to use and are able to provide lots of different types of information rapidly, which seems like some good characteristics to be able to rely on. And of course, once you decide that you're going to militarize smart phones, you can go militarize app stores, too:
Although there are no specifics on availability and the case only costs about $1,000, I imagine that unless you have an awfully good reason to have one of these, it's probably not going to be available to fix the crappy reception you get at home. Sad.
MONAX, via NDIA
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