Point of Beginning – April 2010 Virtual Warfare

The modeling and simulation (M&S) community creates virtual terrain models for use in the training of warfighters in order to provide them with the optimum understanding of the conditions and environment in which they will be deployed. The source data for these synthetic terrain models have historically come from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the federal agency that provides geospatial intelligence in support of national security objectives. While these data are often adequate for most virtual and constructive trainers, the resolution is typically coarse. This lower resolution doesn’t satisfy interoperability requirements with live training, in which trainees are positioned in the real environment.