Cassidian, a leading provider of mapping and situational awareness products, has entered into a cooperation agreement with ESRI Deutschland GmbH, the market leader for geographic information (GI) systems. Using the product name SitGIS, Cassidian provides user-specific extensions to ESRI's ArcGIS product range that combine the tried-and-tested situational awareness function of Geogrid®-SitView with the extensive analytical function of ArcGIS

A core component of C4ISR systems

Advanced command, control and information systems need to be capable of displaying and processing the existing information and the information being acquired during network-centric operations (NCO) to form a common role-based military situation picture. The reference point of any military situation picture is always a geographical background that has been created for specific roles from a variety of geo- and environmental information, preferably using a GI system. The current role-specific situation picture is displayed against the geographical background as a further reference point for information. The task to be performed at any individual workplace then runs on a working level that is administered by the respective system. Geoinformation and situational functions are thus prerequisites for a military workplace in a C4ISR system.

The combination of the powerful, tried-and-tested situational component Geogrid SitView with the GIS products using ESRI's ArcGis technology provides users with a future-oriented solution. The solution can be adapted to individual requirements in terms of both situational awareness and GIS functionality. Analytical functions of the GIS element can be applied both to the geographical features and to the situational information. This gives users the ability to apply the comprehensive analytical functions incorporated in the GIS unrestrictedly to the tactical information sources as well.

SitGIS products are available not only as extensions to ArcGIS products but also as standalone versions.