A user can locate an airport in the area of interest by highlighting the airfield database layer and entering the name of the airfield. The system then takes the user to that site. Other logistical information about the facility is included in the airfield database to be called up if needed. Potential targets worldwide are assigned a basic encyclopedia, or BE, number by the intelligence community for storage in a Defense Intelligence Agency database. If one of these targets is selected for attack, air strike planners using the box can call up that location directly by entering the target's BE number.
All available imagery is annotated and displayed on-screen.
Bill MacDonald, NIMA senior engineer, estimates that this process can save 85 percent of mission planning time by providing this imagery and data in a single appliance. The system received its acid test when a U.S. pilot was downed in northwest Kosovo at about 2 a.m. local time. After plugging in the downed pilot's coordinates, the air crew used the NIMA map data to reroute the helicopter team around some power lines that could have been an invisible menace when the rescue crews dropped in on the pilot's location. Armed with this information, the rescuers were able to retrieve the pilot from his hiding place amid Serbian forces only about two hours after he parachuted to the ground. The same aircraft also used the box to direct allied air strikes against mobile or suddenly detected targets.