ABSTRACT
Track:  Defense and Intelligence

Integration of a GIS into a C2I System

Michael Cairn


Background: The Canadian Army is currently developing a C2I system called the Land Forces Command system (LFCS), which will be deployed early in the year 2000. The system is based on the French Army "SystSme d'Information pour le Commandement des Forces (SICF). The French software has been developed and fielded in an evolutionary manner over the past decade and has been used successfully in operations such as the Gulf War and Yugoslavia. It will be run on new workstations and integrated into the Tactical Communications, Command and Control System (TCCCS) by Computing Devices Canada (CDC), the prime contractor for both projects. GIS Integration: As the quantity and availability of geospatial information increase, so does the need to manage this information and use it to improve decision making. There is an inherent dependence between the geographic services and the planning tool requirements within LFCS, and currently the SICF software as it stands does not meet the Canadian Army requirement for geographic services. In order to determine how to meet the geographic services requirement within LFCS a study was commissioned. The scope of the study was to determine a geographic architecture to fulfill the geographic requirements of the LFCS and to determine how a GIS could be integrated into LFCS. Discussion: A typical GIS normally functions using its own internal design and is generally based on a proprietary 4GL. The GIS 4GL provides both GUI and geographic services that are dependent on the GIS software. The ideal solution for the integration of a GIS into LFCS would be for the GIS design to be structured on an open solution based on independent APIs. The independent APIs would provide access to the geographic services but at the same time allow use of the LFCS GUI. This paper/presentation will discuss the findings of the geographic services study, discuss the various options of how a GIS can be integrated into a C2I system with current technology, and take a look into how GIS may be integrated into a C2I system in the future.

 

Michael Cairn
Swedish Armed Forces

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