Maxar wins next phase of Army’s One World Terrain effort

WASHINGTON — Maxar Intelligence has been awarded the Phase 4 contract for the Army’s One World Terrain virtual map effort, the company announced today.

Managed by Army Futures Command’s STE Cross Functional Team, OWT seeks to create a 3D global map soldiers can use when training on combat missions in a synthetic environment. Maxar, a major operator of Earth imaging satellites, provides 2D imagery before software renders it into 3D models of the terrain.

It’s been an important push by the service as it seeks to improve soldier training. Army officials have also previously said they think the maps could be used for positioning, navigation and timing in GPS-denied environments.

It’s not a shock that Maxar, which has worked on OWT since 2019, was given the greenlight to continue its work. But it’s a sign that a key Army modernization effort is moving forward.

“Maxar is proud to play an important role in supporting the U.S. Army’s modernization initiatives through the One World Terrain program, a forward-leaning solution that enables more sophisticated modeling, simulation and training systems to optimize warfighter readiness,” Susanne Hake, Maxar’s general manager for US government, said in a statement.

“This latest award reflects the unique value of our 3D geospatial data for military simulation use cases. Our data, derived from our Precision3D product, offers an extremely accurate 3D representation of Earth, including real textures and superior accuracy of 3 m in all dimensions.”