Primordial said it received a $590,365 contract through the Defense Acquisition Challenge (DAC) to integrate its Ground Guidance® into FalconView, a critical military system currently installed on more than 14,000 government-issued laptops.
The integration will provide soldiers with interactive route planning capabilities within FalconView.
Ground Guidance®, is patented software that determines the best path through off-road terrain by analyzing vegetation, terrain, threats, and man-made features
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| Ground Guidance Image: Primordial |
Primordial began the integration and development effort in December 2012. The one-year contract includes integrating Ground Guidance capability into FalconView, generating routable maps to facilitate testing, and updating the software based on soldier feedback resulting from three user juries.
“Ground Guidance’s automated route planning and terrain analysis features will accelerate mission planning and enable soldiers to evaluate courses of action (COAs) more thoroughly,” said Lt. Col. Rodney Briggman, Army Product Manager.
In March, Primordial released a beta version of its FalconView plug-in. In April, Primordial conducted a user jury where six soldiers tested the plug-in planning missions. The soldiers provided feedback on Ground Guidance’s features and verified the accuracy of route metrics such as distance, duration, energy expenditure, calories burned, and exhaustion.
“Ground Guidance is a unique mission planning tool that enables soldiers on the ground to rapidly plan routes and analyze terrain. There is no need for complex GIS software or expertise,” said Randy Milbert, president of Primordial. “This makes small combat teams more autonomous, nimble, and adaptable and enables them to quickly respond to changing battlefield conditions.”
Enhancements under the contract include advanced planning tools such as recommending avenues of approach, suggesting halt locations, avoiding historic improvised explosive device (IED)/significant activity (SIGACT) locations, recommending equipment, and warning of ambush locations.
This partnership will advance the use and availability of Ground Guidance to soldiers in the field. The integration with FalconView will provide soldiers with the ability to plan efficient and safe routes to and from mission objectives, while allowing them to account for other variables such as load, energy expenditure, enemy movement, and line of sight exposure, the company said in a statement.