"The vision we're looking at is, every soldier is issued a phone," says Michael McCarthy, director of operations at the Brigade Modernization Command, Mission Command Complex, at Fort Bliss, Texas. Here the and tablets has been going on for several months, sometimes with soldiers toting them along for general administrative duties and training, or even taking them out in field exercises in the rugged desert surroundings. Along with McCarthy, Ed Mazzanti and Col. Marissa Tanner are leading the project the Army calls "Connecting Soldiers to Digital Apps."

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But lots of need to be answered before the Army can give the go-ahead to give each U.S. solider a smartphone. McCarthy says Army analysts are seeking to find out whether smartphones, as well as tablets, could be adapted to meet specific security and operational considerations the military has.

The Army wants to know if assigned military radio frequencies can be securely used with the new generation of hand-held devices in order to support a more custom-designed network that could be set up on the go.

The Army is exploring that possibility by reviewing three new wireless technologies -- one called from Lockheed Martin, another from Oceus Networks (partnering with N), and third, the "cognitive radio" gear from .