Israel Arms With iPads to Face Increasingly Complex Battlefield

Smoke after Israeli attacks in Gaza City, Gaza on August 9, 2014.

Photographer: Ashraf Amra/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
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During Israel’s seven-week Gaza Strip war with Hamas last year, company commanders were just as likely to be holding an iPad as an M-16, as the mobile wireless device took on an unprecedentedly critical role.

It was the first war in which a fully integrated network allowed all branches of Israel’s armed services to deliver and simultaneously see information about militants’ movements, rigged homes and the location of friendly forces.