Today, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) operates the world’s most intelligent and agile digital infrastructures for military operations. In addition to cutting-edge applications of advanced analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, and other fields, Internet of Things (IoT) technologies—called ‘Internet of Military Things’ (IoMT) in this context—make up a large part of this growing infrastructure.
Now, IoMT is one of the fastest-growing segments of overall defense technologies. Indeed, IoMT resources have applications across all branches of the armed forces as well as within the U.S. intelligence community. IoMT increasingly incorporates other digital ‘frontier’ technologies such as advanced C4ISR, autonomy, and others in its growing sophistication as well.
Even so, IoMT is still in its early stages of deployment. But clear use cases alongside innovations like 5G and edge computing suggest IoMT will remain one of defense organizations’ priority technologies. In this article, we explore different IoMT applications along with five trends driving IoMT development and adoption. All signs indicate future IoMT use cases will be critical contributors to acting on real-time data and further protecting human life.
The Origins of IoMT
The concept of IoT emerged in private markets to describe a series of touchpoints between people, devices, and digital processes, most often via remote connectivity. These networks enable the flow of real-time data as part of remote monitoring, analysis, and control, allowing human participants to make informed decisions based on timely or real-time data—from one or even thousands of sensors.
Today, IoT is widely used in personal capacities, such as fitness tracking or smart home applications. IoT has widespread use cases in manufacturing, healthcare, and other industries as well. Recently, IoT technology “has provided logistics services to many disciplines such as agriculture, industry, and medicine,” one 2021 academic study reports. “Thus, it has become one of the most important scientific research fields.” Without a doubt, the improved communication, visibility, and decision making IoT provides has existing and clear future applications in the military as well.
Why Does IoMT Matter Today?
For defense organizations, IoMT adoption is more than a trend—it is an infrastructure necessity, driven and shaped by trends both in technology and on the modern battlefield. “It’s imperative for the success and safety of civilians… and warfighters in dangerous situations worldwide,” TechTarget’s IoT Agenda reported in December 2021.
IoMT is especially critical as the modern battlefield becomes more complex. In addition to the threats of standing armies, various threats to civilians and military personnel—many of which are covert, difficult to anticipate, or difficult to detect—put nations and human lives at risk. Countless future crises might be anticipated and averted with quicker actions driven by real-time IoT data from the field as well.
Combined with modern tactical computing, IoMT enables defense organizations to adapt their logistics to suit any environment. Indeed, applying IoT alongside distributed computing in these capacities can drive real-time data processing warfighters need to enable real-time threat assessments and response, more precise asset allocation, and greater visibility after deployment, among other opportunities.
5 Trends Driving IoMT Progress Today
Fortunately, responsible military oversight is prioritizing IoMT prototyping, development, and deployment driven by new opportunities and necessity. According to the 2021 academic study, one potential IoMT system has already “outperformed the traditional military system with regard to the performance metrics, packet loss, end-to-end delay, throughput, energy consumption ratio, and data reduction rate.” Here we consider five real-world trends that are driving military adoption of IoMT and its potential for success.
1. An Increased Need for Tactical Computing
Network-centric tactics have been in place within the U.S. military for decades. But as success in warfare increasingly depends on real-time data and analytics-based decision making, military leaders need a more consistent flow and faster analysis of real-time data to maintain strategic superiority.
The emergence of tactical edge computing—a decentralized approach to cloud computing that decouples technology resources from centralized cloud—makes real-time decision making in the field more effective at scale and across geographically remote areas. Standardized IoMT technologies will both empower these decentralized environments and ensure uniformity of data for broader analysis.
2. Growing Sophistication of Remotely Connected Technologies
Just as digital infrastructure becomes more advanced, so too do the equipment, vehicles, and mobile devices of personnel in the field. These complex tools require more data points for sufficient monitoring, enablement, and support. More sophisticated sensors can provide a complete view of assets in the field; however, they require more advanced networking solutions to quickly support and analyze the resulting large quantities of data.
Fortunately, defense industry organizations have been deploying more advanced sensors for this purpose. These tools “combine sensor input and data analytics to offer predictive analytics data for failures or malfunctions long before they appear,” Army Technology reports. They allow for more thorough system-wide health monitoring and predictive response to those factors as well.
3. Augmenting Human Intelligence in Real Time
The tactical use of IoT within distributed computing networks allows warfighters in the field to augment their intelligence and decision making. Indeed, all of today’s IoMT tools designed for battlefield intelligence retain a human-centric approach: final decision making always falls to one or more human beings; in these cases, they simply have more complete intelligence made possible by IoMT. This approach allows for AI-level certainty and precision, even while maintaining human-based ethical considerations and accountability.
4. The Emerging Power of 5G
Private 5G networks already are becoming popular within private companies hoping to improve their networked and IoT infrastructure. There are clear applications for 5G within restricted defense networks as well.
“The defense sector sees 5G as the future and is already acting on it today,” Deloitte reports. “5G enables nearly everything to be connected, supporting the defense joint all-domain command and control (JADC2) strategy.”
When integrated with countless IoMT sensors, defense decision makers can expand their remote capabilities dramatically. For example, they can perform predictive maintenance on equipment in the field, ensuring necessary components arrive before a break occurs. Also, 5G enables defense organizations to perform these operations at scale—a critical factor with such a large, distributed network.
5. The Progress of Advanced Analytics
‘Big Data’ analytics continues to grow in sophistication. Artificial intelligence means technology can increasingly make strategic recommendations and even some decisions based on analyses as well. In the U.S. military, advanced analytics of data from across its distributed network drives tactical superiority on a global scale—but not without real-time data via IoMT connectivity feeding those results.
Protecting Tomorrow Starts with IoMT Today
Intelligence has always been central to tactical superiority in warfare. As thes tate of modern battlefields evolves, the speed and sophistication of information are becoming more critical as well. Beyond improving combat sophistication and readiness, IoMT contributes to the core responsibility of protecting human lives. In the years to come, creating a more agile and resilient infrastructure—one with broad use of sophisticated IoMT technologies—will be critical to meeting the defense requirements of both individual nations and the world.
Learn More about IoT and IoMT with Uvation
Even among leading military organizations, there are barriers to wide scale IoMT adoption. Uvation can help you identify the IoT or IoMT use cases that are right for your organization. We are a strategic partner as you scale your IoT or IoMT initiatives as well. Visit our IoT service page to learn more, or start a conversation about IoT and IoMT opportunities today.