Q&A: What’s in the Tech that the Military Needs?
Our military needs mobile technology they can trust to provide reliable processing power and battery life in the field, when data access and communication are of the utmost importance. Whether in battle on the front lines, aboard a ship at sea or in an aircraft, the right technology can help make missions more successful for military personnel.
To gather additional insight into Panasonic’s federal solutions, we spoke with Account Managers Julie McCabe (JM) and Jerry Courtney (JC), as well as National Sales Managers Brad Kersavage (BK) and Scott Heckman (SH). Here’s what they had to say:
When the government is looking to procure military grade laptops for its personnel, what does the TOUGHBOOK 55 offer?
JM: Customers love the functionality, the flexibility and the fact that they can switch out ports on the backside to fit into their environment, the system they’re using and whatever comes next. They know they won’t have to buy a new machine, or replace it; they can just buy an xPAK or change out a port and they’re off and running.
JC: Agreed. The ability the TOUGHBOOK 55 offers customers to configure their device on the go is unprecedented, and reduces downtime in the field – which is especially important in mission-critical situations.
In what ways is the TOUGHBOOK 55 built for, or applicable in, military settings?
BK: The TOUGHBOOK 55 is certainly one of the better devices for the military because of its modularity, allowing for upgrades and changes to be made in the field. But it also offers our soldiers an incredibly long battery life of up to 40 hours. What’s more, consumer-grade devices are usually prone to drops, breakage and are hard to see in the direct sunlight, whereas the TOUGHBOOK 55 is built for those scenarios.
JC: When our Navy customers are deployed, either in the field or on a ship in the middle of the ocean, they find comfort in knowing that when an issue arises or something needs to be changed, they have the ability to resolve it and reconfigure their device without any special tools or technicians.
JM: A lot of what I see in the Air Force is diagnostics, uploading and information transfer via aircraft or engine. All those connections are very different and unique to the vehicle or to the engine. We’re able to have that flexibility with our ports via the xPAKs that the TOUGHBOOK 55 offers.
How, specifically, are TOUGHBOOK devices used in military settings?
SH: Robotics and unmanned systems are a growing trend in the military, and Panasonic makes the highest-quality, longest lasting mobile computers on the market. So when robotics makers are looking for a controller to enhance and power their systems, they disproportionately choose Panasonic to do that.
When an unmanned systems provider is offering their robots to the government, they need a controller they can be confident in. The controller on a very expensive robot cannot be the point of failure.
The TOUGHPAD M1 provides a bright screen, and a highly compact, high powered processor to control aerial vehicles. On the ground explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) side, we generally see a larger form factor such as a TOUGHBOOK CF-33 or a laptop like our TOUGHBOOK CF-31 to control those robots.
BK: When they are out in the field, they’re surprised to learn that we have a number of mobile smaller devices that are completely rugged, maybe even more so than our traditional clamshell. It provides our customers with sound state of mind that they’re going to be able to complete their mission.
The above responses were taken from Panasonic’s federal video series. To learn more about Panasonic’s solutions for federal customers, visit: https://na.panasonic.com/us/industries/government-public-safety.
