Express course “Topography for the military”: necessity, tasks, problems

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present the structure and content of a short express course on topography, namely on working with a topographic map for the military.

Main material. The inferior attitude towards Geography as a science and educational discipline on the part of education officials has led to the fact that over the past 20 years, the geographical, in particular, topographical literacy of Ukrainians has dropped sharply. The paper discusses the reasons for the poor topographical training of the military, in particular, rank and file, and the problems caused by this. The authors have developed a training course on topography for military based on real annual work. It consists of three sections:

1. Work with a topographic map;
2. Local orientation;
3. Work with UAVs.

Each of the sections includes several topics.

The first section: – acquaintance with the topographic map; – conventional signs (legend); – map orientation;

– determination of coordinates;

– solving practical problems.

The second section includes traditional and modern methods of orientation on the terrain.

The third section considers work with UAVs.

Conclusions. The article emphasizes the mandatory introduction of this course for all groups of conscripts as well as the necessity to include topographical and geographical disciplines in the training plans of students of all educational institutions in the country, regardless of their field of study.