Get ready to love touchscreens, soldier: Pentagon signs three-year Windows 8 licensing deal

Whether they’re ready or not, America’s fighting men and women are about to be powered by Windows 8. Business Insider reports that Microsoft (MSFT) has just scored a major win by signing a three-year software licensing deal with the United States Department of Defense that will deliver Windows 8 to 75% of its 450,000 employees. Business Insider notes that this new deal marks “the first time that three major DOD agencies — the Army, Air Force, and Defense Information Systems Agency — have entered into a single agreement with Microsoft,” so this really will be a big boost for the new operating system. Of course, since Windows 8 is such a dramatic shift away from the traditional Windows interface, it’s likely that Microsoft will need to undertake a massive training program to make sure that Pentagon employees understand the ins and outs of the operating system. The last thing we want to see is a raid on al-Qaeda botched because someone on the support team was too busy looking for the Start button.

[More from BGR: Samsung confirms plan to begin inching away from Android]

This article was originally published by BGR