GIS in National Security

Transforming the Army Tactical Geospatial Environment: DCGS-A Geospatial

—Daniel Bentz, US Army Geospatial Center

As part of the Distributed Common Ground System – Army (DCGS-A) acquisition program, Army has began transforming the tactical geospatial environment by adopting new ArcGIS software features and open standards. This activity and the resulting software are referenced within Army as DCGS-A Geospatial. In this presentation we will highlight the changing Army tactical geospatial environment, the development Army has completed with ArcGIS 9.3.1, and preview plans to begin adopting ArcGIS 10 features. DCGS-A is designated as Army's next generation Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (IRS) component of Battle Command (BC). Consequently, this transformation will not only make the Geospatial Engineer's operations and functions more effective and efficient, but it will streamline the relevant and timely geospatial products and information to be made available to all of the systems and users across the BC environment to help improve the level of their situational awareness.