[jasonwatkinspdx]

> simply because the commercial stuff is more usable and gets updated faster.

And this isn't a new pattern by any means. Decades ago the UK military had a plan to replace their old analog centric radio gear with a system that integrated voice, data, gps blue force tracking etc. They called it BOWMAN.

The initial versions were so bad everyone started calling it Better Off With Map And Nokia.

The defense establishment moves at a glacial pace and consistently under delivers vs the equivalent commodity commercial products.

[redgridtactical]

Had no idea about that, went down a rabbit hole researching it. It's a pattern that keeps repeating: by the time mil-spec hardware ships, the commercial equivalent is two generations ahead.

[throwup238]

There’s a structural reason for that. Mil-spec hardware requires years of data on the failure modes of components to properly design. NASA has the same problem and in the last decade or two they’ve been relaxing that requirement for less critical missions because technology sped up so much.

For the military that won’t change until there’s an existential threat.

[ExoticPearTree]

> There’s a structural reason for that. Mil-spec hardware requires years of data on the failure modes of components to properly design.

By now you pretty much know how it can break and what are the most common issues with hardware. No one invented a new type of EMP for example that can pass through the holes in a Faraday cage for example. The water in the ocean did not became ten times more acidic that hardware requires more protection.

A wild guess: you can strap an iPhone to a military grade radio kit to help with jamming and what not, and have a very usable product. Or whatever modern phone. You then swap them out easily and you are always up to date on capabilities. Cell towers are upgraded less frequently than phone hardware. Same thing with the military stuff.

I think a great part in this plays industry inertia and vendor and too much money that could be lost. “This is how things are done” and it costs $10,000 per screw because “it is certified”.

The recent war showed that you can use commercial drones with a grenade or two strapped to them in very effective ways. Not to mention the more “advanced” ones that you still go to the store and buy them.

We need more defense startups and a lot less red tape to iterate as fast as possible.

Until Starlink, you had hundreds of milliseconds of latency for satellite internet. Now it feels a lot more like you are on mobile data on a phone.

Incumbments had no reason to offer a better experience because there was no competition. Now they’ve been left in the dust because of Starlink.

The existential threat will be very instant when an enemy with no milspec equipment punches you hard in the face. And catching up will not be easy nor fast.