Military applications of GIS
Air Operations
Air operations in battle environment require the similar inputs as per land operations along with precise height information for targeting. These include the detailed information about the target location, proximity of civilian areas, and terrain evaluation and meteorological conditions besides navigational data. The virtual reality concepts are of greater help in fighter and bombing aircrafts for effective air strike operations.
Military leaders heavily depend on GIS and GPS (Global Positioning Systems) to make tactical decisions such guiding troops, supplies/equipment and ships, informing them of possible threats, problems with terrain in which they will encounter and also to direct there attention to specific areas of interests. For example data is relayed to the attack aircraft giving the pilot needed information, such the location of target and identification of the target, plus possible hot spots in which they may encounter an attack on themselves. These pilots also receive data on meteorological information, which enhances visibility, and pre- warns them of possible change, which may occur during an aerial activity.
Weather Information
Weather plays dominant role in the battlefield. Real time weather information is essential for field commanders either on land or in sea or in air for successful completion of the task. At times, weather may play crucial role in success or failure of an operation. Every battlefield commander would like to know the information regarding cloud coverage, wind conditions, visibility, temperature parameters and other related inputs.
GIS System
The computer based Geographical Information Systems can provide automated assistance to military forces terrain analysis function. However these software systems and utilities have limitations, as they are not full-featured GIS. The greatest limitation is the users ingenuity and the data, which is used. These systems have the capability to receive, reformat, create, store, retrieve, update, manipulate and condense digital terrain data to produce terrain analysis products such as: modified combined obstacle overlays, hydrology overlays, slope maps, on and off road mobility maps, line-of -sight plots, concealment maps and possible problems associated lines of communication.
The uses for GIS will continue to evolve as technology advances and the costs decreases. The full potential of some GIS applications in military forces has already been discovered, however the future of GIS applications in the military will be determined by how military units accept GIS and utilize it in the most efficient way possible.
Positional Information
One of the most important functions of GIS along with satellite imagery is to understand and interpret terrain, which is a major role in determining how troops can be deployed in the quickest and most effective way. Understanding the landscape is especially useful because a military leader can determine strategic positions, such as ideal locations for scouting parties, best line of sight/fire and also the ability to hide troops and equipment.
Logistics Management
GIS plays an important role military logistics because it helps in moving supplies, equipment, and troops where they are needed at the right time and place. By using GIS in determining routes for convoys, forces are able to determine alternative routes if mishaps or traffic jams occur on the most direct route. By using both GPS and GIS certain sensitive articles such as; nuclear warheads can be tracked every step of their shipment and also kept away from hot spots, populated areas or other shipments.
Mapping Techniques
From the above it is evident that Military needs maps for different purposes within its operational command and each requirement is to cater for a specific purpose. The digital base in GIS environment facilitates the creation of different types of maps to meet specific user needs without clustering with unwanted details. This facilitates the viewing of spatial information on need to know basis either at command headquarters or in the field area. The battle commanders can evaluate thematic information for analyzing the real time scenario by manipulating the information available at their disposal.
Common Horizontal Datum
It is necessary that the spatial data for the use by Military units reside within framework of single Datum for coordinating joint service operations. There is a bottleneck in this aspect in the present scenario of military operations. Colonel Whittington of UK Military Survey at ESRI 1997 European User Conference amply explained this. According to him " the maritime operators use a vertical datum based on the high water mark; the land operators use a vertical datum based on mean sea level, while the air operators are more concerned with the obstruction heights above ground level. The amphibious operators are not concerned about the use of Datum and they do not rely on computer"
This becomes more complex when multinational forces are deployed. This was evident in Bosnia conflict where there is difference in target position computed by European Datum and WGS84 by few hundred meters. Even a larger displacement was observed when local Yugoslavia datum was applied. In India, we use Everest Datum and use of GPS receivers in the field may pose problem unless the datum shift is correctly established.
All this brings down to the fact that a common datum is necessary and slowly WGS84 is emerging as a common datum for all such operations. The technological advances in position fixing using satellites is based on WGS84 and most of the civilian applications also need to be shifted to this datum in course of time. Military applications are no exception. However, this is a gigantic task and to achieve a common datum across the world needs money and expertise. Most of the countries may not have the resources in terms of funding and technology to handle this change.
As an interim measure, there should be at least interoperability between the three wings of Armed forces to use a common reference datum in their activities in mapping for effective conduct of joint military operations.
Final Word…
Present warfare involves operations involving combined forces and an integrated approach for evaluating battle area for mobilizing logistics, moving various forces and setting communication network for effective operations in real time scenario are necessary prerequisites for successful operations.
GIS technology helps armed forces as information is readily available to various levels of officers involved in operations. The advent of remote sensing technology has provided great Philip to intelligence units in defense forces to acquire data on enemy activities from eyes in the sky. Spy satellites constantly acquire the high-resolution satellite data in peacetime to monitor the development in acquisition of modern warfare gadgets by the enemy forces. There is no privacy as far as these satellites are concerned and the developed countries have been extensively using remote sensing techniques in monitoring the enemy activities in establishing nuclear installations. These are brought to the notice of International Agencies coordinating the prevention of use of nuclear energy for destructive purposes.
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use of remote sensing data combined with ground information would provide a common platform for analyzing the ground situation in time of war. The induction of satellites providing high-resolution images in the present era enhanced the ability of accurate map-making and by making the latest information available to the forces.