With hundreds of pounds strapped to their backs, one hundred mile winds tossing them around mid-air, and the thick blanket of night impeding their view, military freefall operators have less than a minute to act. In those few seconds, any decision they make could result in the success or failure

This video shows a military freefall training operation as viewed through the TAK server, which simulates a tactical operations center observing soldiers in a field environment. The Drop Zone Safety Officer (DZSO) has ATAK running with a TAK server connection via cellular data and a goTenna for local Radio Frequency

By simply deploying a goTenna Pro X2 device with each tactical operator involved in the military freefall exercise, users can track each other on a map or send messages at a 5-second Position, Location, Information (PLI) rate. There are more benefits to mobile mesh for military freefall than simply providing

In a previous article on The Last Mile, Michael Thomas talked about some of the ways that the ATAK application and mobile mesh networking can help warfighters with land navigation. He also discussed how hours were shaved off of recon missions by incorporating the ATAK app and mobile mesh networking