Director’s Message

This 2007 Statement of Strategic Intent describes our vision, goals and objectives 

for the next five years for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the 

National System for Geospatial Intelligence. It has been helped considerably by input 

from throughout NGA and the Community. Integration and collaboration across the 

community is our pathway to success. GEOINT plays a critical role in virtually every 

Intelligence Community and Department of Defense mission; we will not fail to partner as 

closely as possible with our counterpart agencies and ensure that GEOINT is effectively 

utilized whenever and wherever it is needed. 

Affixed to this SSI are two seals, the NGA seal and a seal representing the National 

System for Geospatial Intelligence. The NSG seal represents our broader GEOINT 

community of practice and our commitment to collaboration, shared values and unity of effort. The seal will be used 

initially on documentation that governs or guides the NSG, and evolve to include GEOINT products that are produced 

under the framework of NSG Unified Operations.

The goals and objectives presented in this Statement of Strategic Intent fully align with priorities of both the Director of 

National Intelligence’s National Intelligence Strategy and the Secretary of Defense’s Defense Intelligence Guidance. It 

emphasizes that we must focus outward and increase our operational tempo, for we are a nation at war. As such, we will 

support our partners with a heightened sense of urgency as a unified GEOINT community. 

This new Strategic Intent places a premium on collaboration, trusted analytical insight, and people. Improving our 

collective capability is a never-ending job, and we will excel by leveraging our diverse expertise and assets; we will 

become more innovative and take risks; and we will strive always to exceed expectations organizationally and as part of 

the integrated Community.

To meet these challenges and continue supporting our partners as never before, we shall center our efforts on the 

following goals:

1. Unify NGA and the National System for Geospatial Intelligence, and strengthen our partnerships across the 

 Intelligence Community

2. Advance the GEOINT Mission—“Help Win the Fight”

3. Attract, challenge and retain the highest quality workforce in first-class Working environments

Robert B. Murrett

Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy

Director, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency 

Functional Manager, National System for Geospatial Intelligence
The NSG Vision

An integrated, collaborative community of GEOINT professionals embedded with our operational and national partners 

to meet their warfighting and intelligence needs

The National System for Geospatial Intelligence

Mission

To provide timely, relevant, and accurate geospatial intelligence in support of national security. 

The NSG 

The National System for Geospatial Intelligence (NSG) is the combination of technology, policies, capabilities, doctrine, 

activities, people, data, and communities necessary to produce geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) in an integrated 

multi-intelligence, multi-domain environment. The NSG includes the Intelligence Community (IC), the Joint Staff, the 

Military Departments (to include the Services), the Combatant Commands (COCOMs), international partners, National 

Applications Office, Civil Applications Committee members, industry, academia, Defense service providers, and civil 

community service providers.

The GEOINT Discipline 

Encompasses all activities involved in the planning, collection, processing, analysis, exploitation, and dissemination of 

spatial information in order to gain intelligence about the national security or operational environment, visually depict 

this knowledge, and fuse the acquired knowledge with other information through analysis and visualization processes. 

GEOINT consists of imagery, imagery intelligence and geospatial information.

1
1.1 Through strong collaboration and our understanding of the mission, we will focus outwardly and build 

 enduring partnerships.

 • Strive to set the collaboration example for the broader community in a multi-intelligence environment.

 • Promote group collaboration through multi-disciplinary teams and integrated operations centers.

 • Implement a GEOINT Unified Operations Strategy through a formal framework to facilitate integrated GEOINT 

 operations. 

 • Capitalize on the value-added collection and exploitation from GEOINT users in the field.

 • Enhance our existing, and initiate new, international, academic, and private sector partnerships that strengthen 

 our GEOINT capabilities.

1.2 Strengthen NSG governance and maintain clarity of objectives, responsibilities, and authorities for action 

 and accountability.

 • Use the NSG Senior Management Council to address the community’s most challenging problems and areas 

 of highest interest.

 • Ensure effective NSG governance through establishment of GEOINT Doctrine and Directives. 

 • Improve the effectiveness of performance measures to optimize resource allocation.

1.3 Advance basic and applied research and development (R&D) of leading-edge science and technology and 

 accelerate the incorporation of results into the operational environment.

 • Capitalize quickly on promising GEOINT R&D activities to solve current and emerging intelligence and 

 operational challenges.

 • Develop a GEOINT R&D roadmap - aligned with the DNI Scientific & Technical Plan - to achieve technology 

 breakthroughs to address the most difficult and enduring intelligence problems.

 • Ensure that the NSG acquires and retains access to consistent, high-quality subject matter expertise for core 

 GEOINT science areas.

Unify NGA and the National System for Geospatial Intelligence, and 1 Strengthen our Partnerships across the Intelligence Community

2
2.1 Continuously adapt, providing tailored time-sensitive GEOINT, to fight and win the long war. 

 • Align analytic efforts to execute the priorities reflected in the National Intelligence Strategy and Defense 

 Intelligence Guidance.

 • Operate as a fully integrated community partner to meet the GEOINT needs of a rapidly changing multi-

 intelligence mission environment.

 • Leverage our agility to provide timely and tailored analytic support to meet partner operational tempos.

 • Strengthen the quality of analysis, working with IC, DoD, and international partners, to increase analytic rigor 

 and deepen analytic impact.

2.2 Ensure the integrated and optimized use of airborne, commercial, advanced geospatial intelligence, 

 foreign and national satellite collection.

 • Further integrate the collection and exploitation management of airborne, commercial, advanced geospatial 

 intelligence and satellite data. 

 • Provide structured analytic and production techniques and visualization tools to improve GEOINT data quality 

 and coverage and increase analyst efficiency and efficacy.

 • Accelerate the standardization of sensor data, metadata, compression formats, and file identifiers.

 • Develop strategies and methods for addressing the exponential increase in data and information to ensure that 

 all relevant data is analyzed.

2.3 Guarantee GEOINT access when and where needed.

 • Build a responsive GEOINT IT infrastructure to promote transparency and information sharing in a multi-

 intelligence environment across the DoD and IC.

 • Ensure discovery, access, dissemination, and management of all GEOINT data stores through a web-enabled, 

 service-oriented architecture.

 • Provide the tools and processes to fuse and manage data sources, from multiple producers, at all required 

 security levels.

2.4 Achieve front-end/back-end alignment to address collection platforms, building a foundation knowledge 

 base and comprehensive access to NSG products and services.

 • Broaden the “expeditionary culture” that ensures embedded GEOINT personnel and capabilities are integrated 

 into real-time operations to respond to decision-makers’ and warfighters’ needs for products and services.

 • Populate and maintain the Geospatial-Intelligence Knowledge Base as the virtual central repository for 

 GEOINT data and information. 

 • Articulate NSG requirements for sensor platform development, data dissemination, data storage, and data 

 exploitation to achieve an optimally balanced investment strategy.

2 Advance the GEOINT Mission—“Help Win the Fight”

3
3.1 Invest in our people.

 • Implement a strategic workforce plan that will identify, track and foster critical occupations, skills, and 

 competencies. 

 • Enhance analyst recruitment and workforce development to effectively exploit all GEOINT sources.

 • Build and deepen expertise through internships, communities of practice, mentoring, and state-of-the-art 

 training methodologies (web-based and virtual). 

 • Develop a corps of leaders to guide and shape the future NSG.

 • Create and sustain an environment where a diverse workforce is engaged, empowered, and encouraged to 

 take prudent risks.

 • Recruit and retain a new generation of highly mobile employees with creative hiring and career development 

 strategies. 

 • Establish high standards of performance and ensure that the workforce exemplifies exceptional professional 

 conduct.

3.2 Strengthen NSG mission performance by providing a first-class working environment.

 • Improve physical work environments to enable greater mission performance, accommodate changing mission 

 requirements, and foster high workforce morale.

 • Employ a robust, reliable, scalable infrastructure to promote collaboration and establish a mission-oriented 

 work environment.

 • Streamline business processes by eliminating management and infrastructure stovepipes while transitioning 

 from legacy and heritage systems.

 • Guarantee operational continuity and a seamless transition to new locations by leveraging NSG community 

 capabilities.

3 Attract, Challenge, and Retain the Highest Quality Workforce in 

First-Class Working Environments

4
Core Values

Personal values and attributes are the keys to mission success. 

We prize the following most highly:

Integrity—Delivering on promises and commitments and acting in the best interests of the nation. Adhering to planning, analytic, and management processes and ensuring unity of effort in achieving mission objectives.

Adaptability—Identifying and advocating ways to improve our practices by readily incorporating new information 

sources and technologies into requirements management, collection, and analytic activities.

Excellence— Striving always to exceed expectations individually and organizationally.

Teamwork—Actively contributing to accomplish the mission and lending a hand even if it is “not your job”, sharing 

credit for a job well done; and celebrating the success of others.

Innovation—Welcoming change—accepting risk as an often necessary component of breakthroughs; challenging 

assumptions, conventional wisdom, and conformity.

Respect for Diversity—Treating others with courtesy, dignity, and fairness; recognizing and appreciating each 

person’s contributions; considering different perspectives and opinions; and listening to understand.

Sense of Urgency—Recognizing that we are a nation at war and will likely remain so for many years at varying levels 

of intensity, realizing that if we fail, those who rely on us may fail too.

5