Esri Geospatial Technology Speeds Analysis for US Army

Redlands, California—April 7, 2014—Esri has provided a recently revised set of customized templates to the US Army for its Distributed Common Ground System-Army (DCGS-A).

These easy-to-use templates come with maps, analytic capabilities, and other visualization tools, as well as a simple information model for creating geospatial products.

The templates will help geospatial engineers, intelligence analysts, and geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) imagery analysts using DCGS-A to rapidly make products to support requests from commanders for operations around the world. DCGS-A is the US Army’s main system for processing and posting data; providing mapping and weather information; and sharing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) information with army units.

"Esri technology, such as the templates, gives the army an easy-to-use, technical advantage that helps soldiers optimize GEOINT capability resident in DCGS-A," said Colonel Ed Riehle, the US Army Training and Doctrine Command’s Capability Manager for Sensor Processing.

"Esri is pleased to have partnered closely with the staff who work with the DCGS-A to deliver these important and innovative templates and tools for the US Army," said Esri president Jack Dangermond. "We designed them so the analysts can be more productive in what is a very fast-paced operational tempo. We also believe that by adopting these tools, the value of the US Army’s investment in Esri technology will be maximized."

The templates were customized to match the DCGS-A workflows. Esri staff worked with analysts and specialists at the US Army Intelligence Center of Excellence at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, to refine the template requirements.

These new resources will help analysts do everything from creating sketches of military compounds to making maps that show safe and suitable areas for landing helicopters. The revised templates include

• Incident analysis to map improvised explosive device (IED) incidents or other significant events.
• Cross-country mobility analysis to identify key terrain and sketch approach routes.
• Intervisibility analysis to identify areas of cover and concealment.

The templates will be available on a variety of army websites including the DCGS-A Portal and the Intelligence Knowledge Network as well as in ArcGIS for the Military—Land Operations, an Esri product optimized to provide an interoperable platform to manage, visualize, analyze, and share geospatial information for land-based missions.

Esri will demonstrate ArcGIS for the Military—Land Operations at the GEOINT Symposium April 14–17, in Tampa, Florida, in booth #5036.

To learn more about ArcGIS for the Military—Land Operations templates and other resources, visit solutions.arcgis.com/ military/.