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We understand that our measurements of the original boundary pillars were accepted and that the boundary remained rather than being moved to a more up to date rendition of a certain parallel of latitude determined initially in the 19th C.
The authors’ career paths have crossed several times since 1977, and we have remained excellent friends. Alan went on a second DOS tour in Sudan while Robin became involved in digital mapping at Ordnance Survey. Robin joined Laser-Scan in Cambridge in the early 80s and spent a couple of months lodging in Alan’s house near St Ives when Alan was at RAF Wyton with 1 ASLS. Much later, Alan also joined Laser-Scan as a contract and project manager. Latterly we have enjoyed many trips on Alan’s yacht which is now based near Ipswich. We both still live near Cambridge – not a million miles from the new home of 42 Engineer Regiment and the Defence Intelligence Fusion Centre at RAF Wyton.
DGI 2020
John Kedar and Adam Kaplan
DGI Europe remains the premier GEOINT conference in Europe, attracting government and industry leaders from UTC + 12 hours to UTC - 8 hours, a coverage not far off that provided by the growing number of earth observations platforms in space.
What makes DGI different? Some might argue that it has changed little since inception: 3 days long (give or take), London based, still not breaking into broader security, and still dominated by 5 Eyes nations. But increasingly few people support that argument. Its scale is right, not too large to be impersonal, not too small to attract significant speakers and industry. It feels ‘family’ whilst addressing today’s increasingly capability developments in a rapidly changing 4th Industrial Revolution World, where the change is measurable annually. Geospatial leaders need to be up to speed with this change; the World is far from stable, and this knowledge may give a cutting-edge advantage. DGI is more relevant now than it has ever been.
In my service days, first came the ground briefing, then came intelligence, operations, and logistics. I have explained the DGI ‘ground’ London and the World. The intelligence is perhaps best taken from the UK 2018 National Security Capability Review, which stressed six security threats:
•increasing threat posed by terrorism, extremism, and instability,
•resurgence of state-based threats; and intensifying broader state competition, •erosion of the rules-based international order,
•impact of technology, especially cyber threats, and wider technological developments, •continuing growth in serious and organised crime; and
•diseases and natural hazards.
The Russians use of economic levers, cutting-edge military resources, and broader diplomatic and cultural levers in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine is called “hybrid warfare”. Hybrid warfare will intensify as our competitors drive to exploit the grey-zone between peace and war. Our national GEOINT capabilities need to prepare to play in a more complex space and potentially collaborate with new partners.
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