Despite a smaller staff, NIMA does more with maps
The National Imagery and Mapping Agency, which has reduced its work force, is increasingly using commercial technology to fulfill its combat support mission.
By Bill Murray
GCN Staff
The National Imagery and Mapping Agency, which has reduced its work force, is increasingly using commercial technology to fulfill its combat support mission.
'We're getting rid of aeronautical and nautical hard-copy products,' said Mark E. Schultz, associate director of NIMA's Geospatial Information Management Division. 'Even when they are updated regularly, they get out of date.'
Within five years, NIMA officials want the military services' pilots to download maps through the Non-Classified IP Router Network and the Secret IP Router Network from systems in their cockpits, Schultz said.
Schultz said only then will pilots have the most current information at their disposal. 'The database is up-to-date every day,' he said.
NIMA is working with the Navy, which plans by 2007 to end the use of paper charts and maps through the Smart Ship program, he said.
'The technology is there,' but there is a need for more communications infrastructure investment to make widespread Web mapping downloads possible for pilots literally on the fly, said James J. Sippel, deputy director for exploitation systems, which handles systems development at NIMA.
Since NIMA began in 1996, after the CIA and Defense Department merged their mapping operations, the organization has shed 1,800 employees and now has a staff of 7,200, Schultz said. The agency expects to reduce its rolls further and plans up to 700 layoffs during the next few years, he said.
To meet its needs with fewer employees, NIMA's Geospatial Information Management Division is relying more on contractors and has more than tripled its contracting budget from $30 million to $100 million, Schultz said. The bulk of the increase occurred during the last year, he said.
NIMA is doing more with fewer staff members by moving to commercial mapmaking applications. Many of the government's intelligence and defense mapping systems were custom-built. NIMA has been converting the legacy apps to commercial software.
With fewer employees working on software development, NIMA officials are redeploying the agency's work force to other projects, Sippel said.
| NIMA gets vendors' help on mapmaking R&D |
Geographic information systems: Environmental Systems Research Institute of Redlands, Calif., Erdas Inc. of Atlanta, Intergraph Corp. of Huntsville, Ala., and MapInfo Corp. of Troy, N.Y.
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