The Combat Terrain Information System (CTIS) program is an open system solution to the need to provide Army terrain analysts with computer-based tools that combine commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software, government-developed analytical models, and existing software. The U.S. Army Topographic Engineering Center (TEC) is combining two existing programs to create the CTIS: the Digital Topographic Support System (DTSS) and the Quick Response Multicolor Printer (QRMP). The CTIS program will upgrade, modernize, and expand the capabilities of these earlier systems by integrating computing, printing, and scanning technology into one combined system that is strategically transportable and tactically mobile.
As the system engineering, development and integration contractor, the Martin Marietta Corporation (MMC) is implementing an open architecture that integrates a commercial geographic information system (GIS) and an image processing package in the CTIS. By using appropriate parts of existing code, adhering to the Army common hardware and software (CHS) standards, and integrating COTS packages, MMC will provide the Army with the most up-to-date system solution available, implemented in an open architecture that will provide expandability and an upgrade path to meet future needs for the exploitation of digital mapping, charting, and geodesy (MC&G) products. Two COTS packages form the core of CTIS: ArcInfo (Esri, Redlands CA), the leading GIS package, and ERDAS IMAGINE (ERDAS, Atlanta GA), the leading image-processing package. A system user interface and system executive code will be developed using C/UNIX and OSF/Motif.
One of the most important and challenging aspects of the CTIS is that the resulting system will comply with Army and DoD standards for software development and also with emerging commercial standards. Some of these emerging standards include CORBA, NSDI, SDTS, OGIS, and related communications issues. To ensure current and future compliance with these standards, MMC is building expandability into the software design, database structures, and COTS integration used for CTIS.
Thomas N. Barrett
Martin Marietta
Management & Data Systems Co.
1301 Virginia Dr.
Ft. Washington, PA 19034
Telephone: 215-283-6972
Fax: 215-283-6970
Email: barrettt@sde.mdso.vf.ge.com