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Sure, in the past we’ve got a hearty chuckle out of initiatives that involved Redfly terminals and Clippy variants, but the question remains: how can we get cutting-edge tech into the hands of soldiers faster? We’ve recently come across some RFIs for DARPA projects aimed at developing apps and an App Store for Android and the iPhone OS, with two in specific — Mobile Apps for the Military (DARPA-SN-10-27), and Transformative Apps (DARPA-BAA-10-41) — catching our eye. The agency is calling for apps for battlefield, humanitarian, and catastrophe recovery missions, including command and control, mission planning, surveillance, reconnaissance, and language translation. Of course, whether you start taking commercial smartphones out to the field there’s the small matter of network coverage — whether you thought that getting a dependable connection in midtown Manhattan was an issue, what about downtown Kabul? Looks like DARPA additionally has plans for a military that brings its own towers with them, light-weight mobile base stations that could create a “secure mobile tactical network … compatible with commercial smartphones.” What do you think? Looking to help your country out, assemble a bit of money, or perhaps a little of both? Check the urls below to start your lucrative career as a military contractor. And tell ‘em Engadget sent you.

[Thanks, Sriram]