US Air Force could end up going on a tablet spending spree

Recently Apple announced iBooks 2 which included the launch of educational textbooks which can sufficiently replace the older traditions of learning. Now the United States Air Force is reportedly interested in moving from older and presumably more bulky electronics to putting essential tools and critical information comfortably in the palm of servicemen.

Air Mobility Command (AMC) has proposed purchasing anywhere from 63 to 18,000 tablets to be used as electronic flight bags. This is basically an electronic tool used by flight crews to perform flight management tasks more efficiently. The AMC is mostly involved with support missions such as mid-air refuellings.

It is unknown what precise tablet the Air Force will purchase but the Air Mobility Command has stated that it will be an Apple iPad 2 or similar tablet. These similar tablets could include the Asus Transformer Prime and other next generation tablets that we should see more off at Mobile World Congress later this month.

While the likely purchase is many thousands of iPad 2s due to their conceived user friendliness over Android tablets, AMC public affairs director Lt. Col. Glen Roberts has said in an interview with Nextgov that they are considering all kinds of tablets and not just Apple's iPad.

Kitguru says: The military is always at the forefront of warfare technology, as are many tablets these days in the mobile space, so it is good to see the Air Force combining the best of both worlds.

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