GIS Applications for Military Logistics Planning: Study from Czechia

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have become an essential component of modern military operations due to their ability to integrate, analyse, and visualise spatial data across a broad spectrum of defence activities, e.g.Chipatiso (2025).Contemporary armed forces employ GIS for battlefield terrain analysis, intelligence collection and dissemination, operational planning, infrastructure protection, and command-and-control decision support, e.g.Marit (2023).Within operational planning, GIS enables commanders to evaluate terrain constraints, identify optimal manoeuvre corridors, and model potential mission scenarios.Every branch of the armed forces has a mission, and GIS is increasingly the force multiplier behind it.As GIS capabilities expand, logistics has become one of its most powerful areas, e.g.Antai et al. (2023).In military logistics and national defence, spatial intelligence drives how ammunition, supplies, and critical resources are positioned and moved.By systematically harnessing spatial data and GIS models, commanders can track flows of people, goods, and materiel, pinpoint optimal hubs, sharpen decisions, and build resilience against both everyday demands and full-scale crises.GIS doesn't just map the battlefield; it analyses and visualises location-based data to turn geography into a strategic advantage, e.g.Henrico (2025).Among the tasks of military logistics, the establishment of an ammunition depot must always be guided by the overriding goal of maintaining and improving military capabilities and operational effectiveness, e.g.Gigović et al. (2016).The interplay of political and legal conditions, the military-operational setting, and relevant time and budget constraints provides the key framework to determine the most suitable type of storage installation.Selecting optimal sites for ammunition depots requires balancing frequently competing economic and technical considerations with environmental and safety standards.To do this, it is crucial to define clear rules that allow decision-makers to evaluate potential locations based on spatial, safety, environmental, and economic constraints and criteria.The graphically illustrated approach shown in Figure 1 was applied in the ammunition depot site-selection study conducted in the Czech Republic.Figure 1.Flow chart of the methodological process.