Is open source GIS feasible in military operations? Evaluation by applying a use case

Abstract

The study of terrain and all its related elements and facets are of crucial importance to the military, with the importance of terrain being recognised by military leaders more than two thousand years ago. Military operations can occur at any of the three levels of war: tactical, operational and strategic, and can be a combat operation or a military operation other than war (MOOTW). Information about the geography empowers a military commander to plan and execute a mission successfully. As technology developed and evolved, geographic information systems (GIS) have come to play a major role in this. Today, a military operation without the use of GIS is unthinkable. In a developing country like the South Africa, however, licenses for proprietary GIS software, vendor-exclusive training and the bureaucracy of the procurement cycle add to the time and costs of a mission. The question arises whether open source software is a feasible alternative. Since the South African National Defence Force was initially trained in the use of proprietary software and it therefore became a strong habit, the perception now exits that Free and Open Source Geographic Information Software (FOSSGIS) products are neither mature enough nor user-friendly enough to be used in military operations. This study evaluated the use of an open source desktop GIS product, QGIS, in a use case for MOOTW. QGIS, outputs were compared to those produced in ArcGIS, a proprietary desktop GIS product developed by Esri, widely used in military operations. The user-friendliness of the two products as well as pricing was also compared. Results show that the QGIS outputs provide the operational commander with equivalent information to plan and execute a mission successfully. This implies that open source GIS is suitable for military operations, especially those with limited budgets and at short notice, such as in the case of disaster relief.