Posted by Skyler Frink
Nov. 26, 2011. The French geographic Institute IGN (Institut Géographique National), acting as the contracting authority on behalf of the Direction Générale de l'Armement (DGA) of the French Ministry of Defence, has contracted Thales and Cassidian to carry out the second phase of the TopoBase Defense Operation. The goal of this operation is to produce data to feed into defense geographical databases.
The preparation and conduct of military operations require the Armed Forces to be able to rely on a cartographic reference that is pertinent and accessible to everyone in order to achieve an accurate shared assessment of the operational situation. For this reason IGN selected the Thales-Cassidian consortium with Thales acting as the prime contractor for the TopoBase Défense Operation. This operation is intended to set up an appropriate system for producing geographical data (e.g. vector databases, ortho-images, raster maps, etc.) to be fed into defence geographical databases.
The Thales-Cassidian consortium is responsible for the complete process, from receipt of requirements of the Armed Forces General Staff to quality control of the products. The process also includes drafting of specifications, definition of the production reference frame (procedures, tools, testing) and the management of subcontractors in order to guarantee the consistency and homogenity of the totality of TopoBase Defense products.
The purpose of the contract, which has a duration of six years, is to supply the Armed forces General Staff with digitized geographical data required for the operation of numerous weapon and information systems. The use of data from the TopoBase Defense Operation, which guarantees consistency of geometry and format, also contributes to system interoperability.
The first phase of the TopoBase Defense Operation was awarded by the DGA to the Thales-Cassidian consortium in 2005 under the 3D digital geographical data (DNG3D) program.
