Defense - Applications

Patrolling

During his map reconaissance, the patrol commander sets the objective(s). EarthDetails immediately marks all dead ground. He then finds a route that stays within dead ground on the approach, terminating at the edge of dead ground where the objective can be watched or engaged. Once completed, the patrol can step back into dead ground and start extraction.

During orders briefing, the army has historically used the limited accuracy physical ground model. A good ground model can take a couple of soldiers over an hour to make and will still lack the rigorous accuracy of a computer 3D model.

An EarthDetails model will be able to show where the route is exposed to possible enemy positions so that speed may be compromised in favour of stealth or vice versa.

On the other hand, EarthDetails might be used to gain greater exposure for overt patrols meant at advertising presence.

Stealth aside, in mountainous regions, maintaining straight legs following a compass is nearly impossible. EarthDetails allows selecting a more natural path that continues to bend with the ground, around obstacles, following contours and minimizing elevation change. It can then dump out GPS waypoints for the track.

Siting Weapons

EarthDetails can calculate and mark the ground that is covered by all direct fire weapons, from rifles to shoulder fire rockets.

For indirect fire assets, it can mark all ground that can be struck AND friendly line of sight exists to adjust the fire.

For so-called flat trajectory weapons i.e. machine-guns in the sustained fire role, EarthDetails can use high accuracy LIDAR to identify straight lines along ground that make for ideal grazing fire and FPF tasks.

For a defensive operation, the battalion commander can look at the fireplan footprint as described above and shift assets around until all gaps in the defensive are closed.

For indirect machine-gun fire, which has become somewhat of a lost art, EarthDetails can use its incredible elevation accuracy to calculate exact elevation settings. Indirect machine gun fire is a cheap and effective way to get bullets into a window 2 km away from the gun position as the entry team crosses open ground to get into position.

Siting Observation Posts

An effective observation post must have line of sight to as many likely passages as possible. During the map reconaissance, EarthDetails color codes the ground that has line of sight to a candidate point. The commander can then shift the point around and optimize the coverage. This is important also for the acoustic ground radar.

Radio Wave Propogation

EarthDetails will use its terrain capability to show the soldier the regions that have line of sight to other radio antennas. The soldier can then try to avoid radio blackout zones. If the signal were lost, the soldier can see the neighbouring regions that do offer signal and choose, based on the tactical situation and ease of movement, where to regain the signal. Note that VHF can be lost due to the Earth's curvature even if the terrain were flat. EarthDetails takes this into account.

Light and Shadow - Sun and Moon

Having the moon on your side during night time operations is of paramount importance. For example, crossing an open field with a near full moon and clear skies can be deadly. On the other hand, having moonlight while crossing closed country and cut down on missed steps resulting in less noise and injury. EarthDetails can lite the ground, taking terrain into account, so that the patrol commander plans to cross the open field when the moon is still well behind the mountain and hits the closed country with maximum possible moonlight.

Having the sun in your eyes can prove deadly when assulting or defending a position. One might as well be fighting an uphill battle. EarthDetails can use its high speed line of sight algorithm to mark enemy and friendly locations with direct sun light in the face as looking towards the opposing direction. Likewise, this can be used in placing effective observation posts.

Handhelds...,

Highlights:

EarthDetails renders over 300 thousand rooftops, irregular high density LIDAR elevation data, and high resolution imagery supplied by OSI Geospatial for an entire county in the NorthWest.
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EarthDetails brings 3D to a TomTom GO In-Car GPS.

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EarthDetails renders the US West Coast with Geological Survey data.

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