A beacon-augmented pose estimation system includes positionable beacons that can determine their own 3-D geospatial coordinates and transmit those coordinates back to the pose object. An imaging sensor images the field-of-view of the pose object to provide 2-D image coordinates for any of the beacons in the FOV. A pose object controller processes the sets of 3-D geospatial coordinates and 2-D image coordinates to refine a pose estimate of the pose object. The positionable beacons may include both static beacons that are pre-positioned and mobile beacons that are command-guided to position themselves in the pose object's likely or actual FOV.