The UK Ministry of Defence has declared Initial Operating Capability (IOC) on a new development in battlefield geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) that provides significantly improved situational awareness for the British Army.

Lockheed Martin UK and Team SOCRATES, its industry team, have now completed Tranche 1 of the Field Deployable GEOINT (FDG) - part of the overall PICASSO - programme. The PICASSO programme provides strategic to tactical level mapping and digital geographic information and imagery derived intelligence to UK forces.

Following the success of the initial programme, Team SOCRATES has been awarded FDG Tranche 2A, which will provide additional FDG systems, a Forward Map Distribution Point (FMDP) and further Tactical Map Distribution Points (TMDP) capability.

FDG delivers a data centric, GEOINT management, discovery, dissemination and exploitation capability that addresses the deployable requirements of the UK's Joint Force Intelligence Group (JFIG), including the provision of mobile and manoeuvrable working environments at the tactical level.

Ian Smith, the Team Leader of the MoD's Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) IMaGE Delivery Team, commented: "Field Deployable GEOINT (FDG) is a vital project that provides the MOD with improved and enhanced tactical GEOINT capabilities."

The system includes a fleet of 11 Tactical Information and Geospatial Analysis (TIGAS) capabilities - a 2-man, self-contained, tactical exploitation working environment (container) used for collection and GEOINT analysis mounted on MOWAG Duro II 6x6 vehicles. FDG also delivered three vehicle mounted containers equipped as Tactical Map Distribution Points (TMDP) operated by a two-man team.

Team SOCRATES comprises Lockheed Martin UK as prime and overall systems integrator; Marshall Specialist Vehicles; SCISYS; Actica Consulting (security and communications); KNK; Polaris Consulting and Safety Assurance Services.