What is ATAK?
ATAK (Android Team Awareness Kit) is the civilian release of military software known as TAK (Tactical Assault Kit). It runs mainly as a server, and as an app on mobile devices. At its core, it displays a map, the operator's GPS location and name, the locations and names of any team members/friends on the same network, and allows sending, receiving, and displaying of CoT's (Cursor-on-Target), which can be thought of as POI's (Points of Interest). This functionality is critical for nation-state military units (it allows units to perform two of the three pillars of small unit warfare: Shoot, Move, Communicate), unconventional fighters (volunteers and private military contractors can use it in the same way), and civilians (land navigation for backpacking, search and rescue, etc).
Limitations of ATAK
ATAK requires a server, which must be always accessible over a network connection. As one might imagine, militaries have various methods of connectivity, and more networks with more acronyms than anybody would need to remember. The servers they use are hosted and run by their respective governments (from this point onward I will refer only to the US government), and are tightly controlled. How then can a civilian use ATAK? A team of developers have created FreeTAK, a Python-based ATAK server with near-feature-parity. Civilians can use a public instance, or install their own. The FreeTAK server allows creating users, assigning roles, authentication with ATAK clients, and has other useful features including a webmap.
Can you hear me now?
But what about some of the use cases where a civilian might want to use ATAK, such as wilderness backpacking? Sure, maps can be cached and GPS doesn't require cell service to function, so it can still be about as useful as Google Maps without internet, but how can members of a hiking group see ecah other, send messages, and point out landmarks if they get separated without cell service?
Enter mesh networking
Mesh networking! As I touched on in my previous article about drones in combat, mesh networking is an emerging technology that we could leverage to solve this problem. Assume each member in a hiking group had a mesh node on their backpack, and periodically dropped a mesh node along their trail (discreetly of course, Leave No Trace). Or, if this hiking area is popular, hikers could donate and leave nodes (with permission) all around the area, creating a mesh network that spans the entirety. This would remove the problem of having no network connectivity, provided hikers bring their own personal nodes to interface with the mesh network. But how does this help us with ATAK?
The open-source community
Chances are, if we've had an idea, somebody else has too. And chances are, if our idea concerns an application of open-source technology, somebody else has already created a project for it on Github. In our case, this is exactly the situation. Mesh networking can be used with ATAK thanks to the efforts of Paul, with his project atak-forwarder. This project is an Android app that installs as a plugin for ATAK, which allows it to use mesh networking for core functionality (specifically, it interfaces with the Meshtastic project). The process is fairly simple: Install the Meshtastic app, pair it with a mesh device flashed with Meshtastic firmware, install the ATAK Forwarder app, and then configure a few settings within ATAK to get it all working. It can send member location (name, GPS coordinates) displayed as a marker on the map, send messages, and even share CoT's/POI's. No internet access required!
Mesh networking in combat?
Using Meshtastic over ATAK can be useful not just for civilians, but for military also. As we've seen in the Russo-Ukrainian war, units have been located by their signals (WiFi, cellular, Bluetooth). EMCON (EMissions CONtrol) is becoming increasingly crucial. Can mesh networking help us here? Yes! In our scenario above, the only signals are periodic transmissions from the mesh nodes, which generally use the same bands as the Internet of Things (hiding in plain sight). These nodes are also mostly not in the same position as soldiers (aside from the ones they carry on them). And as the nodes are set-and-forget, with proper handling (fingerprints, etc) they are non-attributable. What if a small military unit, in a combat zone with SIGINT (SIGnals INTelligence) threats and/or without cell service, wanted to still communicate with their team members using ATAK? They could deploy enough mesh nodes to cover their AO (Area of Operations), and be able to effectively Shoot, Move, and Communicate. By the way, depending on placement and antenna tuning, these nodes have been documented as successfully communicating over the range of a few miles! Not many nodes would be needed, their chances of being found are very low, and if they are found, they are non-attributable, so there is no risk to the team. And while the common method of connecting a smart device to a Meshtastic node is via Bluetooth, a USB cable can also be used, so there would be no signals for an adversary to locate.
Emerging tech, future possibilities
Once again referring back to my previous article on drones in a combat environment, we can now see how a drone could leverage mesh networking to the advantage of the team. If a drone is created that only communicates over LoRa (Longrange Radio) and can send and receive information over the mesh network, the advantages will be substantial. And it could be displayed, and controlled, within ATAK as well. To my knowledge nobody has created one yet, but it's only a matter of time. Necessity is the mother of invention, after all.
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