I've started building better, simpler tools for military use. Every soldier who's touched a DAGR (AN/PSN-13) knows the pain — $2,500, weighs a pound, UI from 2003, and half the time you're fighting the device instead of navigating. I built Red Grid MGRS to put the same core land nav capabilities into a phone app.

What it does:

Live 10-digit MGRS grid Dead reckoning, two-point resection, pace count, back azimuth Magnetic declination (auto or manual) Waypoint lists with bearing/distance and a wayfinder arrow 6 radio report templates (SALUTE, 9-Line MEDEVAC, SPOT, CASEVAC, ICS 201, CFF) NATO phonetic voice readout NVG-compatible green theme Fully offline — zero tracking, zero network calls, zero data collection. On the App Store. Open source on GitHub.

What surprised me is how little effort this actually took to build. The MGRS math, geodetic calculations, report formats — it's all public domain stuff that's been around for decades. The military is full of overpriced, outdated systems doing things a modern phone handles better. I'm hoping this sparks some genuine innovation, because the people who depend on these tools deserve better than what they're getting.