Services push new mobile apps
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The Army and Navy produced new mobile applications recently to help improve soldier readiness and increase access to mandatory training.
To get information to service members, the military has been creating and releasing mobile apps to help with operations and increase access to mandatory training.
The Army’s Altitude Readiness Management System, for example, is an Android-based app that helps predict when soldiers might come down with debilitating acute mountain sickness -- a condition that occurs when working at high altitude and results in nausea, fatigue and headache.
The app can predict the likelihood of soldiers experiencing the sickness and provides an acclimatization module to minimize effects, the Army said.
While the app does nothing to prevent the sickness, it allows commanders to plan for soldiers that might not be 100 percent. “ARMS can be used to pre-plan mountain missions,” said ARMS principal investigator Dr. Beth Beidleman. “If you use it as a planning tool, you can reduce the amount of people who are impacted by mountain sickness by either changing the ascent altitude, time of exposure or physical activity level or using Food and Drug Administration-approved altitude medication. If the mission can be altered prior to deployment based on this easily accessible information, ARMS can successfully improve soldier readiness.”
On the training side, the Navy recently released two apps that help sailors complete annual, mandatory training on records management as well as on privacy and personally identifiable information awareness with their own devices, regardless of their locations.
“The mobile apps are an extension of our training to offer alternate methods to our workforce,” the Naval Education and Training Command’s Rear Adm. Mike White said. “We want the resources readily available and at your fingertips.”
When they complete the training, sailors can enter their personal identification number found on their Common Access Card and receive a completion certificate that can be emailed to their supervisor as proof.
Designed for personal devices outside of the Navy and Marine Corps Intranet domain, the apps are free and can be downloaded from the Google Play and iTunes store.
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