Article Entry
21 Jan 2010
Comments:8
U.S. Air Force Urgently Seeking Alternatives to GPS?? Going Back to Printed Maps??
Added by USGIF Category: Daily Intelligence Brief, General
Our friends at DoD Buzz recently came out with a story that highlights how the U.S. Air Force — In the face of threats from jamming and attacks on satellites — needs to lessen its dependence on the Global Positioning System and develop alternatives to GPS. According to the article, Gen. Norton Schwartz, Air Force Chief of Staff, said that GPS signals are particularly vulnerable in time of war since enemies know of the reliance U.S. forces place on its highly accurate signal. The article points out that alternatives to GPS include accurate digital maps, if not the good old ink and paper versions. This certainly caught our attention — the printed/paper maps thing. Is this really true? Is GEOINT going retro? Our gut is saying probably not. We anticipate that technology innovations will trump good old fashioned printed maps. What do you all think?
Tags: DoD Buzz, GEOINT, geospatial intelligence, GPS, GPS and U.S. Army, United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, USGIF
There is no doubt in my mind that, with very well maintained high accuracy maps & an in-aircraft inertial navigation system, we can build a very precise terrain following system based on a multiple input terrain recognition system. It is not simple, but it is feasible.
Paper maps work under the thickest canopy and their batteries never – ever – wear out. I still use them all the time.
As any infantryman will tell you, nothing beats a paper map and a compass in terms of reliability and performance under all conditions.
It is hard to disrupt the magnetic North Pole!
Paper maps offer a far better orientation than any on-screen map. Thus they will always be used. The production technologies for making high quality paper maps has transformed and printing in high quality has become affordable and fast. Traditional GIS systems, currently holding the data, are unfortunately lagging behind in the ease of use and quality of output. New GIS cartography systems fill this gap perfectly, offer high level of automation and excellent quality for printing or for digital maps.
[...] for Thought post on got geoint? We hope everyone had a productive work week. This week, we covered a story about the U.S. Air Force re-assessing the use of GPS and how they may consider going back to using [...]
[...] week, we did a post about how the U.S. Air Force is reconsidering its use of GPS and going back to paper maps. And we [...]
Of course, there is middle ground – like digital web maps with MGRS grids that can be used online or offline.
Examples have been deployed as WMS over Haiti –
http://carboncloud.blogspot.com/2010/01/haiti-sdi-wms-reveal-city-of-tents.html