Michael Harper, director of AGC’s Tactical Source and Enterprise Solutions Directorate, highlighted his organization’s support to the warfighter through programs like BuckEye.

“BuckEye is a program that collects high-resolution, 3-D terrain data,” Harper said. “We collect, process, and disseminate high-resolution, electro-optical imagery and elevation data in support of Army and DoD missions.”

He said they employ various airborne platforms and use commercial off-the-shelf mapping cameras and Light Detection and Ranging, or LIDAR, sensors to collect the data that is then disseminated to the services and the intelligence community for exploitation by mission command system and intelligence systems.

The BuckEye Program has seen steady growth over the past decade, as the U.S. military has found itself conducting population-centric operations within urban and complex terrain, according to Harper.

The BuckEye Program has seen steady growth over the past decade, as the U.S. military has found itself conducting population-centric operations within urban and complex terrain, according to Harper.

“Human-scale, high-resolution 3-D terrain data has become a basic necessity for all types of operations,” said Harper. “Unclassified, high-fidelity terrain data improves the situational awareness of our forces, aids precision operations, reduces collateral damage, and saves lives.”

The unclassified nature of BuckEye data also makes it ideal for shared situational awareness with our coalition partners, he added.

“In addition to the current program, we are also working to develop the next-generation capability to enable more efficient data collection from higher altitudes and reduce sensor packages to allow integration into selected unmanned aerial system platforms,” Harper said.

In addition to recognizing and praising myriad AGC accomplishments across the organization, the AGC director was asked if there were one or two recent programs that bring a special sense of pride to the entire center.

“Geospatially enabling Arlington National Cemetery is certainly one area in which we take a lot of pride,” Fontanella offered. “Specifically, AGC provided the framework and infrastructure to modernize how the cemetery manages operations using geospatial databases, applications, and principals. AGC performed quality control reviews of over 151,000 grave points and corresponding grave plots for spatial and attribute accuracy; while also ensuring that it is compliant to the Spatial Data Standard for Facilities Infrastructure, and the Environment standard.”

Fontanella said another program that brings AGC a great sense of pride is the high-resolution, 3-D, unclassified mapping capability.

“BuckEye is a critical capability required by the Army and provides improved situational awareness to our Soldiers by providing very high-fidelity terrain information for a broad range of military, maneuver, and civil applications,” said Fontanella. “This fidelity of information has proven vital to our forces operating in complex and urban environments, as well as those with reconstruction and infrastructure development missions.

“Lastly, with help of our mission partners and other Army stakeholders, our organization has played a vital role in providing a common operating picture in theater,” added Fontanella.

The AGC is working with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology) and the Training and Doctrine Command to improve the interoperability of Army systems and provide an SSGF for mission command systems, according to Fontanella.

“These efforts improve continuity of operations, enhance and extend NGA’s data holdings with Army-produced operational and tactically relevant geospatial information, and enhance soldier situational awareness,” he said.

Fontanella said that the “least understood” aspect of AGC activities is the fact that the center “acts as an agent of the chief of engineers in his role [as] the joint capability area manager for operational engineering, which includes geospatial engineering, extending duties beyond the civil works mission.”

He further added the ACG supports the entire Army Campaign Plan and USACE’s Campaign Plan by providing net enabled Army Geospatial Enterprise in support of unified land missions and that shareable geospatial information is of critical importance to the battlefield commander in trying to understand the operating environment.

“The chief’s primary support to warfighters is our wheelhouse,” Fontanella said.

Asked if he had a message for industry, regarding how they could support AGC efforts, he said, industry partners already play a critical role in providing support to warfighters.

“Our relationships have helped influence industry capabilities to better meet warfighter requirements,” said Fontanella. “One message that I would express is that it is increasingly more important that technical capabilities leverage open source/shared standards to ensure interoperability and allows the Army to optimize data sharing. Industry partners that use proprietary standards will be far less common in tomorrow’s Army.”

With a vision toward the future, Fontanella concluded, “I believe over the next couple of years, as we move away from Afghanistan, our focus will be on a different set of requirements, as the capability we provide to the Army at large, we will continue to gain efficiencies and stewardships with Army programs and eliminate redundancy. We will move from the current fight into areas the Corps has unique sets of capabilities and ties into phase zero or pre-phase zero activities, such as nation-building and strategic engagement in key regions around the world.”

This article first appeared in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: Building Strong®, Serving the Nation and the Armed Forces 2013-2014 Edition.