PR —TEC and ESRI will collaborate to design and build innovative prototypes to demonstrate the next generation of geospatial technology in U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Battle Command applications.
The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center's Topographic
Engineering Center (TEC) and ESRI signed a cooperative research and
development agreement for the project today.
This core research will influence the use of geospatial technology in
combat systems throughout the DoD and will significantly contribute to
the design of the next generation of geospatial capability in command
and control applications.
TEC researches how geospatial technology improves decision-making
support throughout the DoD command and control systems. ESRI is the
world's leading technology firm for geographic information system (GIS)
software, geospatial modeling and analysis, and service-oriented
architecture for spatially-enabled applications. The company also has
extensive experience in geospatial research and engineering. This
cooperative agreement brokers each organization's complementary
strengths.
"ESRI has enjoyed many years of successful collaboration with TEC,"
says Jack Dangermond, ESRI president. "We look forward to working with
TEC to design these pioneering prototypes that will support a new
generation of defense geospatial capability."
"TEC's ability to provide the warfighter with a superior knowledge of
today's complex and ever-changing operational environment depends, in
part, on a productive marriage of our geospatial tools, talent, and
military geospatial business logic with complementary commercial
geospatial information technology," says Bob Burkhardt, TEC's director.
"Our partnership with ESRI allows us access to powerful software,
database, systems, and architectural concepts critical to our continued
success as an Army Geospatial Knowledge Center."
TEC and ESRI will combine their skills and resources to design and
develop prototypes of new Battle Command data management and decision
support tools. Specifically, ESRI will help TEC identify and
incorporate key technologies for the architecture and design of
prototypes. These prototypes will serve as reference implementations or
model applications that demonstrate improved geospatial capability in
battlespace management.
TEC and ESRI will
· Design mobile geospatial applications that take advantage of
server technology for data updates and synchronization when connected
and also operate as independent, stand-alone units when disconnected.
· Prepare image services that exploit BuckEye imagery, a
combination of high-resolution color images and lidar data that
supports intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and
tactical operations. BuckEye imagery is a proven important geospatial
resource used in Iraq and Afghanistan.
· Design and create several advanced technology defense
prototypes that improve the ability of command and control systems to
operate with geospatially aware battlefield objects, server technology
that provides tactical-situation awareness, and geospatial technology
to analyze human intelligence.
ESRI and TEC will jointly attend technical workgroups and meet with
other defense and intelligence agencies to share the results of the
research and engineering of the Battle Command geospatial technology
developed under the agreement.
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About TEC
The Engineer Research and Development Center's (ERDC) Topographic
Engineering Center (TEC), located in Alexandria, Virginia, provides the
warfighter with superior knowledge of the battlefield and supports the
nation's civil and environmental initiatives through research,
development, and the application of expertise in the topographic and
related sciences. The ERDC is the premier research and development
facility for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, consisting of six
laboratories and one center at four geographical sites with more than
2,000 employees and an annual research program approaching $850
million. It conducts research in both military and civil works mission
areas for the Department of Defense and the nation.
About ESRI
Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power
to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI
software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including
each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national
governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more
than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on
more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise
servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial
analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical
solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit
www.esri.com.
ESRI, the ESRI globe logo, ArcGIS, GIS by ESRI, www.esri.com, and
@esri.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of
ESRI in the United States, the European Community, or certain other
jurisdictions. Other companies and products mentioned herein may be
trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark
owners.
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