The rapid development and application of digital technology is creating new methodologies in the field of cartography. The Defense Mapping Agency (DMA), which primarily serves the branches of the Department of Defense, is modernizing nearly all aspects of its operation in response to the technology-driven changes in military communications and weaponry. This paper will describe and analyze the planning and procedural changes now being implemented, and the systems that will be installed before the turn of the century. Both problems and improvements in personnel productivity, training, intelligence gathering, communications, planning, and standardization are discussed and evaluated. Special emphasis is given to DMA's role as a crisis support agency, using three recent examples (operations Just Cause, Urgent Fury, and Desert Shield/Storm). Finally, an assessment is offered of the likely affect of economic, political and social changes on DMA's mission, focusing on issues such as the U.N.'s expanded peacekeeping role and the use of cartographic digital data in counternarcotics efforts and Low Intensity Conflicts. Information used in this paper was obtained from a variety of unclassified documents (as noted in the bibliography), personal and telephone interviews, a survey of military officers, and fourteen years of experience at DMA.