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Darfur Tactical Terrain Charts

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

First, in terms of VMAP1 (vector JOG/250k) and VMAP2/MGCP (vector TLM/50k/100k) [OSS EXTRACT] is the man at the center of the NGA universe. VMAP1 is of course complete, but I doubt the any 1:50k products exist in vector format in the Darfur region. You can bother Marzio. I will not. He’s a nice guy, though.

I’m sure NGA has a ton of commercial and NTM imagery for the area. How much of it has been prepped for commercial and off-the-shelf us (made into orthophotos, etc.) I have no idea. The off-the-shelf imagery products would be CIB1 (1m/submeter resolution); CIB5 (5m) and CIB10 (10m).

As for maps, NGA is fine and complete on the small-scale ONC and TPC charts. But they are older (1980s). As for JOGs, it appears that no more than 52 of the 173 JOGs exist in NGA’s current catalog; almost all are over the east of Sudan and Darfur is almost totally uncovered. Possibly there are old AMS 1:250k topos from the 1940s-1950s, but I do not have these indexes. As for TLMs, the 1:50k series is Series Y712, of the 772 sheets that would exist if they made the entire series, I see only 20 sheets in the current NGA catalog (most are from 1989-1990, all are in the Khartoum area). The 1:100k series is Series Y614, and here NGA is a bit better, with at present some 44 sheets made of the 215 total (all are from 1993-1995, but not a single one is over Darfur—all are to the east). Again, maybe there are old AMS large-scale maps, but I have never seen them, and certainly not for Darfur.

The best English-language vector topographic data that I am aware of out there for Darfur is that which we have done for the UN and other Euro-organizations, all of which is based on 1:200k Russian topos with limited updates.

Commercial Acquisition (Faster, Better, Cheaper)

No need to detail our source material (Russian, NGA, Sudanese, etc. maps and geodata) items; they are all easily seen at the following link:

I’m not aware of any genocidal burial sites in Darfur; that’s more of a Balkans thing, I think. The Janjaweed leave their dead to lie, as I have heard. In any event, the location of such sites would have to be provided by the customer. It’s pretty speculative to try to locate such sites from imagery, whatever the resolution. Feet on the ground (and shovels in the ground) would be invaluable for the data to be credible.

Refugee camps are sometimes in Darfur and sometimes in Chad; if maps need to be made over Chad, it’s basically the same price per unit.

As for updated maps (showing refuge camps, landing zones, water sources, but not burial sites) of interest to a DoD client, here’s what we could do:

  1. 1:50k TLMs (Darfur region) and all related/derived products. 772 sheets, each sheet 15x15 minutes. 10m contours, updated with latest SPOT5 imagery, map content and accuracy in full compliance with NGA specs. Derived data products/formats as follows:
  2. PLTS-ready color separates suitable for immediate lithographic printing; also on-demand digital printing
  3. VMAP2 vector data/MGCP compliant
  4. DTED2
  5. CIB/orthophotos based on color SPOT5 (2.5m resolution)
  6. ASRP/USRP (used to support UAV and other systems)
  7. CADRG (highly compressed raster data, used with FalconView, etc.)
  8. eChart (GeoPDF, suitable format for many handheld devices, etc.)

In general the price per 50k TLM product is ca. $15,000 (so, ca. $11.6m for entire Darfur), plus the cost of imagery (ca. $3/square km, with Darfur at 500,000 sq kms, so $1.5m). Our capacity would be 100 TLM products per month. Lithographic printing (red-light readable, folded maps) costs provided on request; in general litho printing is done in lots of not less than 1000 copies; figure $1-$2 per copy depending on press run; shipping costs are ca. $15/kilogram.

  1. 1:100k TLMs (Darfur region) and all related/derived products. 215 sheets, each sheet 30x30 minutes. 20m contours, updated with latest SPOT5 imagery, map content and accuracy in full compliance with NGA specs. Derived data products/formats basically same as 50k TLM.

In general the price per 100k TLM product is ca. $15,000 (so, ca. $3.2m for entire Darfur), plus the cost of imagery (ca. $3/square km, with Darfur at 500,000 sq kms, so $1.5m). Our capacity would be 100 TLM products per month. Lithographic printing as above.\\

  1. 1:250k JOG-A/G/C (entire Sudan, including Darfur region) and all related/derived products. 173 sheets, each sheet 60x90 minutes. 50m contours, updated with latest SPOT4/5 imagery, map content and accuracy in full compliance with NGA specs. Derived data products/formats basically same as TLMs.

In general the price per JOG product is ca. $20,000 (so, ca. $3.5m for entire Sudan), plus the cost of imagery (ca. $1-3/square km, with Sudan at 2.2m sq kms, so $2m-$5m). Our capacity would be 50 JOG products per month. Lithographic printing as above.

4. Terrain Analysis of Sudan (identical to EVC’s much-praised Terrain Analysis of Afghanistan). Descriptive reports tied to JOG map units (173 reports). Deliverable as PDF reports, bound book, or online database (with or without wiki features to allow end-user editing and sharing). $5000 per report, $750,000 for entire Sudan.

Indexes for various products attached, also coverage showing off-the-shelf SPOT5 data.

Good luck,

[OSS EXTRACT]

For complete OSINT support including boots on the ground and translation, contact Robert Steele at 703.242.1700, facsimile 1711, email bear[X]oss.net. See our free GLOBAL REALITY: The Week in Review at (Public Intelligence Daily)