Samsung is developing an Android smartphone just for soldiers

German soldiers, here operating for the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence, will soon be supplied with a special military version of Android developed by Samsung. — dpa

Soldiers in the German Armed Forces will soon have another weapon in their arsenals: smartphones.

The South Korean tech giant Samsung is developing a special version of the smartphone operating system, Android, with German IT consulting company Blackned.

"The devices used by the military will have complex yet intuitive data and voice controls to ensure that they can operate at their respective locations even under adverse conditions," Samsung said at the IT Security Expo and Congress in Nuremberg.

Samsung's Knox security software is being used in the development of the new "highly secure Android-based operating system" for Germany’s military that offers comprehensive protection against "malicious software and other threats".

With this system the software on the smartphones could be updated independently of Google, the creator of Android.

In addition to the German Armed Forces, Samsung also counts the German Federal Police among its customers. The Federal Police will be the first law enforcement agency in Germany to use the latest generation of smartphones (Samsung Galaxy S10 EE) on a large scale for classified communications. – dpa