ARMY GEOSPATIAL CENTER UNIFIES BATTLEFIELD SYSTEMS BY JOYCE MARTIN, U.S. Army Geospatial Center
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he U.S. Army Geospatial Center (AGC), a direct-reporting center under the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is equipping the Army to win by aligning data, standards, and research and development so that military capabilities are synchronized through a content-managed precision geospatial foundation. Existing Army priorities, from Soldier lethality to long-range precision fires, rely on precise location data. As the Army’s knowledge center for geospatial information and services, the AGC is working across the enterprise to prepare a strategy for mapping standards that unify geospatial data, while balancing the need to maintain existing programs like high-resolution 3-D data collection, engineering route studies, water resource database maintenance, and ENFIRE, which gives tactical planners a tool for efficient situational awareness. One of the possibilities that has been explored this year is the emerging opportunity to use 3-D for a tactical edge. In October, the AGC director, along with cross-functional team directors from Army Futures Command, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), and industry representatives, offered their thoughts on challenges and benefits brought about by 3-D in an open forum at the Association of the U.S. Army annual meeting, Oct. 15, 2019. As One World Terrain (OWT) strives to provide a set of 3-D global terrain capabilities and services to replicate the operational environment for training, a logical next question is whether the
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geospatial enterprise could standardize a common geospatial source to give 3-D enough fidelity to be an asset for tactical operations, as well as for training. Although the Army has better geospatial data on the battlefield than ever before, the advent of 3-D data provides opportunities to look at the gaming community and use the same common data products across the training and operational communities, said Gary Blohm, director of the AGC. “Today’s geospatial mapping and products are key to our intelligence and mission command systems,” Blohm said. “We’re developing technology map-based mission planning algorithms to better use geospatial data to help enhance position, timing, and navigation in the absence of GPS, and we’re figuring out how to better integrate it in Soldier-worn augmented-reality devices, all in support of the evolving multi-domain operations.” Within the geospatial enterprise, Blohm, the Army’s geospatial information officer, develops and maintains policy and synchronizes the Army’s operational and R&D toward geospatial standards, working with the NGA and service, coalition, and acquisition partners to collect data, and provide analysis and integration support. One of AGC’s main responsibilities is to enable the geospatial enterprise to address capability gaps that prevent systems from achieving a true common operating picture.
