Ground Guidance: Load-Based Mission Planning

Army small unit leaders face complex tradeoffs when selecting equipment and routes for a mission. Mnemonics such METT-TC and OAKOC summarize many of the factors that soldiers consider, but quickly and comprehensively analyzing these elements is challenging. Primordial"s flagship product, Ground Guidance is patented software developed under contracts with AGC, CERDEC, PM MTS, DARPA, and USSOCOM that enables soldiers to perform rapid terrain analysis, load planning, and route selection. In September 2011, Primordial received a $3.7M, three-year NSRDEC BAA contract under which Primordial is updating Ground Guidance to account for weather, energy expenditure, heat strain, weapon range, chokepoints, and individual load. In phase I, Primordial built on this effort by updating Ground Guidance to suggest halt locations, learn travel times, recommend firing locations, identify avenues of approach, and suggest ambush locations. In phase II, Primordial will improve these components and add tools to locate landing zones, extract maps from aerial imagery, support directional slope, enhance energy cost calculations, recommend relevant equipment, provide hybrid routes, route around known hazards, and route considering weapons dominance. Primordial will also perform several testing rounds during development by enlisting three small unit leaders with recent combat experience to assess these new features.