EADS Defence & Security (DS) and ESRI Deutschland GmbH have signed a cooperation contract to combine their expertise in the area of military situational awareness capabilities and geographical data processing. Their objective is to develop an OEM product (SitGIS) and an extension product (Copex Extension), which will be marketed together on a national and an international scale.

EADS Defence & Security manufactures and markets the Geogrid software family, containing a software product known as 'Geogrid-SitView/-COPEx', which generates and processes military and security-relevant situations against a geographical background, for example, for all German Army Command and Control Information systems.

ESRI Inc. manufactures the ArcGIS™ software technology, which consists of individual software components (ArcObjects) which can be grouped into set products, or can be individually used within other applications, including those from different manufacturers.

In the scope of the cooperation, selected components from both software products will be combined into a new product that will be marketed worldwide under the name of SitGIS®. In the medium term SitGIS will become the core product of new applications in the related field of Common Relevant Operational Picture (CROP).

Through the integration of tactical and analytical capabilities, users will, for the first time, be able to carry out tactical situation monitoring as well as complex GIS analyses for decision making, within one application. Therefore, the solution is suitable for supporting asymmetric threat situations, accelerating the decision making process and improving information superiority through complex analysis.