# DLA partners with NGA on digital delivery initiative

/ Published July 21, 2021
RICHMOND, Va, 
More than a dozen representatives from Defense Logistics Agency Aviation’s Customer Operations Directorate’s Mapping Customer Operations, DLA Data Production Operations, DLA Information Operations and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, participated in a print-on-demand site tour and ribbon cutting ceremony at DLA Document Services on Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, July 14. 

The ribbon cutting ceremony officially kicked off the Digital Delivery and Dissemination Connectivity initiative between DLA and NGA. D3 provides business continuity plan/continuity of operations plan to NGA mapping and digital product storage capabilities. It provides a capability that mirrors the print-on- demand initiative for digital product discovery and retrieval.

Daral Valtinson, chief of DLA Information Operations’ Data Production Operations Branch from Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, began the ceremony by giving a detailed D3 briefing  from a DLA perspective.

He said D3 inception began in 2016 in response to a need to provide functional mapping digital data storage within the DLA footprint that allows COOP redundancy to harden the footprint and leverage the partnership that currently exists between NGA and DLA.

“By doing this, we are able to support the warfighter regardless of conditions. This creates efficiencies, time savings and cost savings. We’re taking what we do today as a hard copy deliver and/or electronic medium delivery to a digital delivery as much as possible,” Valtinson said.

Kevin Bettis, chief of DLA Aviation’s Customer Operations Directorate’s Mapping Customer Operations, said D3 establishes digital mapping storage holdings outside of the NGA firewall to provide  redundant data storage to rebuild NGA's holdings in the event of a catastrophic failure of the world wide web, or an event that will make it impossible to access NGA holdings via an NGA provided platform.  

“Now we have the ability to grab the data and continue producing the maps the warfighters need anywhere in the world,” he said.

Bettis said D3 capabilities will be at DLA Document Services on Naval Station Norfolk as well as Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Karyn Runstrom, deputy director for DLA Information Operations attended the ceremony, as did Sandra Simpson, director of NGA’s GEOINT Information Office and Stephanie Rubbelke, print and distribution division chief also from NGA.

Rubbelke said she was very impressed by D3 and echoed much of what both Bettis and Valtinson said concerning the capabilities it brings to the table.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity to showcase the synergy between NGA and DLA and how it benefits the warfighter. We are improving the quality and integrity of the products that are being distributed,” she said.

The partnership between DLA and NGA falls in line with the Trusted Mission Partner, which states DLA will improve trust and transparency by enhancing customer-facing tools and software, formalizing customer feedback and increasing collaboration at all levels. We will align performance metrics and targets to ensure we are accountable to our customers and Warfighter Always, which is to improve end-to-end readiness and cost-effectiveness in support of Combatant Commander Campaign Plans and Integrated Contingency Plans in competitive and contested logistics environments, Lines of Effort within the DLA Strategic Plan 2021 – 2026.