wars have been won only with weapons but also with information. In the digital age this is particularly. The US Army wants to update your System, with which the soldiers are supplied in a battle with information on the field of battle. And for the first time a solution from the private sector.
The requirements of the US army are high. The Software needs to be not only extremely reliable, but the live incoming data such as troop positions, the terrain, the weather conditions and much more calculate to give then in seconds quick decision-making help. In this case, the System must be able to read, even in the most heated of battles and easy to use.
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let the Army like the other U.S. military units are always tailor-make a solution to develop, reports the Washington Post. This time, on a volume of $ 800 million estimated Deal goes to Palantir, a controversial security company, behind the Paypal founder and Trump-Advisor Peter Thiel. The data analysis programs are already being used by many companies and authorities. You are taken by some critics as a precursor to the surveillance state, but also the German authorities, such as the Frankfurt police, to the customer.
Also, the Army seems to have Palantir convinced. After a Bietstreit with the US defence group Raytheon, the US had chosen the army in 2016, initially for the latter. After a successful action brought against the decision Palantir was back in the race. Unlike the previous procurement process, the Army decided to leave both systems in the test. They should be in special battle laptops in parachute units.
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“The Army here has changed their approach to the tender,” said Doug Philippone of the newspaper. He was in an elite unit of the Army, now he is head of Palantirs defense business. By the test phase, the providers were given the opportunity to have their programs through Feedback from the Tests to the specific needs of the soldiers. And it is precisely here that the defence newbie was able to score well strong. Palantir had always been sure to be able to feedback from soldiers, the best solution to offer, so Philippone. Raytheon described the Deal to the “Defense One” as “disappointing” and tried to get him to play down. “It is only a relatively small number of systems,” said a spokesman.
Not only for the Army the change to Palantirs commercial solution is a break. For the company it is an important step. With the Army it has retracted one of its biggest ever orders. It is one of the highlights is a risky strategy: While the majority of companies from the Silicon Valley to private and commercial customers, focused Palantir since its founding in 2004 to authorities. While the approach of investors was initially skeptical, the tilted for a long time. Palantir is valued at 20 billion US dollars.
in fact, the Silicon Valley has long recognized the military as a customer. Also, Microsoft and Google joined in the last year, highly doped contracts with the Pentagon. Many of the workers went to the barricades, Google made at the end of a climb-down. Palantir does not have to worry about such internal conflicts.
sources: Washington Post, Defense One
