COMMERCIAL GEOINT

STRATEGY

2018 Update

NATIONAL GEOSPATIAL-INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
“Global Persistent GEOINT ... leverages the ... 

capabilities of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)

through dynamic, model-driven collection that accelerates data to answers,

increases NGA’s investments in the commercial sector, and

integrates the capabilities of international partners to

 fill intelligence gaps and provide early warning

needed for decision advantage.”

Statement for the Record

House Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Strategic Forces

Fiscal Year 2018 Priorities and Posture of the National Security Space Enterprise

May 19, 2017

— Robert Cardillo, NGA Director
Vision ......................................................1

Purpose and Goals................................1

Progress .................................................1

Scope and Intent ..................................2

Enduring Themes ..................................2

Strategy ..................................................3

The Path ................................................3

Roadmap ...............................................4

Implementation Imperatives.................6

Learn + Understand ........................6

Explore + Evaluate ..........................7

Influence + Invest............................8

Accelerate + Acquire.......................9

Adapt + Integrate ..........................11

Summary ..............................................12

References...........................................13

Guidance.......................................13

Policy.............................................13

Endnotes .......................................14

TABLE of CONTENTS

1

VISI N

COMMERCIAL GEOINT: DELIVERED AT THE SPEED OF DECISION MAKING 

 BUILT INTO OUR BUSINESS

PURP SE and G ALS

This strategy update will enable the National System for Geospatial Intelligence (NSG) to better understand the world by leveraging commercial 

GEOINT capabilities. We will embrace new suppliers and services by working with our intelligence community (IC), combatant commands, 

military services, and federal civil partners to employ the best mix of commercial and national sources in order to secure strategic competitive 

advantage and outpace our adversaries. Collaborating with our partners, NGA will take full advantage of commercial GEOINT to satisfy mission 

needs and maximize the efficiency of our integrated architecture.

OUR GOALS ARE:

Expand data and service access through partnerships to feed analysis and production

Fortify GEOINT Assurance through diversity of commercial suppliers

Drive analytic and production capability by integrating commercial GEOINT, automation, and artificial intelligence

PR GRESS

Although the vision for commercial GEOINT has not changed from the 2015 Strategy, the operating environment advanced substantially. The 

landscape of commercial GEOINT providers increased in number and diversity. We gained valuable insight into the utility of commercial 

offerings. Organizations across the NSG created innovative on-ramps to more quickly and effectively leverage commercial services.

• NGA and NRO, under Director of National Intelligence direction, established the Commercial GEOINT Activity (CGA), a collective 

partnership to serve as the “front door” for commercial GEOINT vendors.

• The GEOINT Assessment Community of Practice (GACoP) became a focal point for the structured assessment of commercial 

GEOINT offerings and increasing awareness of assessment efforts.

• With the Commercial Initiative to Buy Operational Responsive GEOINT (CIBORG), NGA and General Services Administration 

(GSA) collaborated to offer GEOINT on GSA schedules as a marketplace.

• The GEOINT Pathfinder generated important lessons learned by using unclassified data, commercial information technology, and 

open source methods to answer intelligence questions.

• NGA’s In-Q-Tel Interface Center (QIC) partnered with In-Q-Tel (IQT) to identify, adapt, and deliver innovative technology solutions 

from the commercial start-up sector.

• The NGA Outposts placed NGA at the forefront of innovation in recruiting, technology, and tradecraft by building relationships with 

industry, Federal Government partners, and academia.

• NGA entered into the Planet Feed and Subscription Contracts to obtain the first commercial offering of global coverage of the 

earth every two weeks, followed by a weekly subscription service.

• The Janus Contracts began enabling access to a wider array of commercial suppliers and dynamic content delivery of foundation 

GEOINT (FG) data for NGA by transitioning to open source and cloud services.

• NGA analysts formed the Commercial Services Working Group (CSWG) to share best practices and ideas about the commercial 

sector, informing technology and training solutions to improve analysis.

Building upon this progress, we revised the implementation imperatives and activities. The focus of this effort explicitly adjusts to go beyond 

imagery and enable access to commercial geospatial analytics, services, products, algorithms, and geo-referenced datasets. Consider this 

update an evolution of the 2015 Strategy, a bridge built upon the progress to date and focused on the path to the future.
2

SCOPE and INTENT

NGA’s customers require a broad range of services, including the delivery of geo-referenced imagery and data, FG products and services, and 

intelligence analysis. Increasingly, many customers operate on dramatically reduced timelines, driving a need for persistence — collection at 

the speed of the observable — from multiple sources. The scope of commercial GEOINT for this strategy is geo-referenced analytics, services, 

products, imagery, and data of commercial providers derived from space, air, ground, sea, and online platforms. 

The intent is to communicate with our workforce, IC, combatant commands, military services, federal civil agencies, foreign partners, academia, 

industry, and oversight. Working with commercial industry and collaborating with our partners is essential for the workforce and NSG leaders. 

Embracing commercial GEOINT, NGA and the NSG will better inform decision makers and address the demands of oversight and stakeholders.

ENDURING THEMES

Consistent with the 2015 Commercial GEOINT Strategy, this strategy will foster a more diverse, resilient, and responsive GEOINT program that 

provides user access to the best mix of commercial GEOINT services (i.e. analytic products and services, contextual information and knowledge, 

and pixels) to fulfill NSG and Allied System for Geospatial Intelligence (ASG) mission needs. NGA requires this seamless integration of all GEOINT 

regardless of source or classification to enable anticipatory analysis, create online living knowledge, and reduce the time between questions and 

answers — thereby providing faster and more consequential impact.

The remote sensing industry continues to evolve global coverage, rapid revisit rates, diverse spectral content, aggregation from open source 

venues, and analytic capabilities with increasing dynamism. NGA must harness the rising bow wave of persistence from established and emerging 

commercial GEOINT providers to deliver an expanding spectrum of GEOINT offerings at the speed of decision making. As commercial GEOINT 

offerings evolve from pixels to imagery based analytics and geospatial statistics, most commonly delivered as services, NGA will capitalize on this 

commercial revolution to improve analytic insight and anticipatory intelligence over time. Geospatial analytics will fuel this transition from pixels to 

insight. This shift will allow the workforce to transform tradecraft from traditional imagery analysis to a practice of geospatial analysis applied to a 

fast flowing stream of big data from increasingly diverse commercial and national data sources. We must enable analysts and data scientists, with 

a full range of tools, services, and datasets to better exploit commercial GEOINT within the decision cycles of our IC, tactical, and FG customers.

We offer a roadmap for the community and workforce to adapt to new sources, instantiate more responsive acquisition models, and integrate 

commercial sources to improve user access and drive greater mission impact. This strategy enables NGA to move toward: greater unclassified 

operations; more production and publication of unclassified intelligence; and the augmentation, conflation, and integration of unclassified 

intelligence with classified sources.

i
3

STRATEGY

This Commercial GEOINT Strategy expands on our implementation imperatives and associated activities to continue to show the way forward. 

The imperatives from the 2015 Strategy remain relevant. We added a new implementation imperative, Influence + Invest. It identifies new 

incentives, rewards, and investments to position NGA to ride the wave of commercial GEOINT.

IMPLEMENTATION IMPERATIVES:

Learn + Understand the commercial GEOINT industry and status of capabilities through collaborative networks

Explore + Evaluate commercial GEOINT analytics, algorithms, services, products, imagery, and data

Influence + Invest across the industry to promote diversity and resilience in supplier base and capabilities *

Accelerate + Acquire mission relevant commercial GEOINT capabilities that are sufficiently mature

Adapt + Integrate commercially enabled operations to keep pace with mission requirements

These implementation imperatives support all of NGA’s intelligence, defense, and civil support missions. New to this strategy, we identify 

existing mechanisms, authorities, efforts, and processes to meet our goals. We also identify new partners, capabilities, incentives, tools, and 

tradecraft to support the strategy in coordination and collaboration with the National Geospatial Intelligence Committee (GEOCOM).

As an evolving strategy, we build upon progress to date and focus on the future by updating our implementation imperatives and activities. 

The new norm is the continuous evolution of the operating environment. Commercial GEOINT will pave the way for our mission, architecture, 

process, and tradecraft advances that rely on unclassified data and services.

THE PATH

The United States Government (USG) must continue to evolve as the GEOINT industry emerges, grows, and matures. The pace of evolution in 

industry will continue to accelerate. Adaptation is vital to remain relevant. Together, the implementation imperatives offer a path forward as NGA 

continues to transform. Activities create connections across the imperatives. Common themes unite the activities of each imperative. 

NGA’s future commercial GEOINT acquisitions must accommodate two realities that are in dynamic tension: (1) competition and diversity fuel 

real innovation and (2) fiscal resources remain constrained. Prioritization by mission, to focus effort and resources, is critical to achieve greater 

impact within budget.

We need commercial GEOINT acquisition to become more responsive. NGA must remain flexible enough to divest less effective capabilities for 

more capable commercial services. We will capitalize on increasingly diverse commercial capabilities and leverage opportunities to mitigate 

risk with a greater number of sources.

The implementation imperatives in this strategy consist of five distinct and interweaving lanes of a roadmap. While activities in one lane may 

precede actions in another, all lanes continuously move forward. Several initiatives within the GEOINT community already drive action in these 

lanes. This strategy and new activities bridge the relationship between existing initiatives and the path forward to integrate commercial GEOINT 

into the Global GEOINT Enterprise.

* New implementation imperative
4

CAPABI

OPERATIONS

SUPP

KEEP PACE

SCOUT INNOVATION

ASSESS OFFERINGS

PROMOTE DIVERSITY

REMAIN RELEVANT

Leverage partnerships

Engage innovators

Enable data access

Activate experimental

analysis units

Coordinate structured

Verify t for use

assessments

Establish bold

challenges

Reward with

incentives

Create 

automated

reports

Employ platforms

to earn points

Apply points to

 nominate offerings

INFLUENCE

+

INVEST

ACCELERATE

+

ACQUIRE

ADAPT

+

INTEGRATE

EXPLORE

+

EVALUATE

LEARN

+

UNDERSTAND
5

LITIES

ORT

ENTERPRISE

COMMERCIAL GEOINT STRATEGY

ROADMAP

Elevate

achievable

Leverage

automation

Prepare

workforce

with training

Enable DevOps

environment

Protect systems 

with accreditation

Expose offerings through

analytic workows

Adapt processes 

and architecture

Diversify 

investments

Streamline policy

and regulations

Foster multinational 

partnerships

Embrace e-marketplaces

with diverse contracts

Contract simply with

broad user licenses

KEY

Existing Imperative

New Imperative

Existing Activity

New Activity

Implementation Imperatives
6

IMPLEMENTATION IMPERATIVES

Learn + Understand the commercial GEOINT industry and status of capabilities through collaborative networks 

NGA will expand our engagement with industry, foreign partners, and stakeholders to scout innovation and improve understanding of 

NGA’s needs and interests. Industry will benefit from early understanding of NGA’s missions and requirements to make better informed 

decisions and investments. We will draw upon the lessons learned by industry and our partners to adjust our position as industry evolves. 

Together, we will multiply our return on investments by sharing knowledge capital and opportunities to co-invest. Our partnerships will 

depend on mutual transparency, open communication, collaboration, feedback, and trust to unify our effort.

Leverage partnerships to enable innovation through data and knowledge exchange with trusted partners

NGA plans to invest data in research and development using existing authorities, for public private partnerships 

(PPP) between the USG and our nation’s best innovators, companies, and academic institutions.ii

The PPP initiative will “incentivize US commercial companies and academic institutions to co-develop 

technologies by sharing intellectual property (IP) rights.”iii 

Expanding the US industrial base through partnerships, to automate NSG and commercial data as a 

force multiplier, will better position the US to maintain its national security and economic advantage.iv

Engage with industry innovators through outposts, tech / innovation scouts, and unsolicited online platforms

NGA Outposts will continue to expand the NSG reach to a wider commercial base; 

and talent/innovation scouts, such as NGA QIC, will continue to identify new data 

and technology partners.

The NGA Explorer Program and eNGAge will offer geospatial exchange and immersive 

learning experiences; and the GEOCOM will seek feedback from NSG partners.

CGA will screen technical capabilities against high level mission needs and 

communicate value propositions of different commercial geospatial capabilities 

for the NSG to better understand the mission applications.

Create automated reports from structured data with natural language processors (NLP) to convey utility 

We will work with commercial vendors to manage automated and NLP reports to capture trends in 

organizational usage, geo-search areas, and keyword searches used to interact with commercial sources.

NGA will automate reports to understand utilization of diverse sources and identify opportunities.

Foster collaborative multinational relationships to co-invest in commercial and integrate allied capabilities

NGA will fortify our multinational partnerships to co-invest in the commercial markets, as well as share 

in costs and benefits.

We will seize opportunities to collaborate on international programs which multiply the effects of commercial 

GEOINT, similar to the Multinational Geospatial Co-production Program (MGCP) for high resolution vector data.

We will rely on foreign partner assessments of commercial capabilities to speed mission application; and 

the NSG will integrate allied capabilities to fill intelligence gaps and provide early warning advantage.v

VALUE SCREEN

LEADERBOARD

MARKET RESEARCH TOOL

SCREEN

ENGAGE

INDUSTRY

ADVISE

USG

SHARED ENTERPRISE DATABASE

COMMERCIAL

CAPABILITIES
7

Explore + Evaluate commercial GEOINT analytics, algorithms, services, products, imagery, and data 

With pre-operational tests, evaluation of data, and trial accounts/services, NGA will assess operational utility, identify integration issues, and 

explore new tradecraft possibilities. Through participation in prototype demonstrations, assessments, challenges, and incubators, the NGA 

workforce will become agents for transformation. NGA will consolidate the experience and knowledge of analysts, community partners, and 

customers as they assess commercial GEOINT. NGA will collaborate with industry, academia, and partners to encourage the development and 

use of common standards, protocols, formats, metadata, and evaluation measures to facilitate ingest of new and non-traditional offerings.

Work out of incubators and unclassified USG sites to enable access to data for industry to develop capabilities 

NGA will create environments to stimulate operational experimentation with commercial industry, the 

community, and our partners by exposing our mission challenges; sharing what we do and what we need.

Working out of technology centers, NGA will accelerate data access, encourage development of new capabilities, 

and demonstrate prototypes where industry and academia incubate, from T-Rex to IQT Labs.vi

We will open USG facility doors to work with industry and foreign partners by enlarging unclassified space at 

NGA Campus East (NCE) and building out flexible unclassified spaces at Next NGA West (N2W).vii, viii

Activate experimental analysis units to push tech and tradecraft boundaries to fulfill mission requirements 

NGA will continue to activate operational and experimental analysis units with commercial GEOINT, such as 

Rapid Response Teams and Rapid Feedback Teams, to rapidly focus effort and innovation on missions.

We will employ combinations of experimentation and analysis with innovative technology and tradecraft 

solutions to spin off to industry, on to the government, and out to the NSG with NGA Support Teams.

Encourage industry trade associations and academia to verify fit for use through GEOINT Assurance 

NGA will share in the verification of commercial data with new and existing organizations to use de facto and 

generate new technical specifications/standards for analytics, algorithms, and services, as well as imagery.

We will create use cases, structured test data sets, and evaluation criteria to promote industry participation 

in quantitative validation of commercial capabilities.

NGA will build trust and confidence in use and mission application, by building GEOINT Assurance into the 

verification and validation of sources to confirm source, accuracy, reliability, and operational readiness.

Coordinate consistent structured assessment of capabilities through GEOINT assessment community

The GACoP will capture, conduct, and synchronize assessments by reinforcing consistent procedures to help 

the NSG understand the value of GEOINT solutions, as described in the GEOINT Assessment Handbook.ix

CGA and GACoP will compile market research baselines to advise 

acquisition decisions, as required by the Federal Acquisition 

Regulation, with CGA Leaderboard assessments online.

NSG enterprise market research tools will capture user reviews 

to inform mission applicability and operational readiness levels; 

industry will be able to learn and respond creating feedback loops.

ASSESSMENT JOURNEY MODEL

DECISION POINT

SCOUT EXPLORE ASSESS

BOOGIE BOARD 

NGA strategic 

analysis approach 

to managing 

analysts work 

and interaction 

with the NGA QIC 

and IQT. Focused 

on top analysis 

technology needs 

to prioritize effort 

and evaluations 

of offerings 

against mission 

applications.

SURFBOARD 

NGA QIC 

assessment process 

to evaluate start-ups 

and prototypes 

for application to 

NGA missions. 

Determines what 

technologies to 

share with NGA 

Directorates to 

consider for support 

to mission gaps 

or problem sets. 

Informed by IQT 

daily technology 

summaries.
8

Influence + Invest across the industry to promote diversity and resilience in supplier base and capabilities 

USG policies, processes, and operations will incentivize innovation in order for commercial GEOINT providers to be effective and responsive 

mission partners. Focusing on operational problems in challenges and incubators will lead to faster mission impact. NGA will promote 

diversity and spur innovation by using incentives in the form of data, resources, skill development, recognition, and achievement to keep 

pace with mission requirements. We will allocate requirements, resources, and investments to apply an appropriate mix of sources to balance 

opportunities and risks. NGA will influence innovation by aligning investments with mission priorities and reducing regulatory barriers to entry.

Enable NGA Prize challenges to establish bold goals and reward industry upon achievement of those goals 

NGA Directorates will set and invest in NGA Prize challenges, offering financial incentives to compel and inspire 

investment/innovation, promote diversity, and drive solutions in automation and GEOINT Assurance.

Modeled after XPRIZE, IARPA, and DARPA challenges, NGA Prizes will leverage highly incentivized prize challenges 

to solve big GEOINT problems with prototypes enabled by Other Transactional Authorities (OTA).

We will create incremental goals, identify component targets, and build toward challenges; requiring clear, 

understandable, and achievable scope/rules with measureable finish lines in under two years.

Employ analytic platforms to recognize and reward contributors with earned points for resolving mission needs 

NGA will use analytic platforms to recognize users who contribute to emerging missions, 

advance skills, and acquire points by using new tools for automation, USG crowd sourcing, 

and third party services.

We will build USG analytic capacity and structured observation datasets by recognizing 

analysts who stay up to date on skills and act quickly to be the first to resolve simple 

mission requirements and earn points. 

NGA will consider mission sets ripe for exposure including disaster response, combating 

illicit trafficking, and Arctic visualization; employ experience gained with GeoQ, NOME, 

H4D, and SpaceNet; and seek input from GEOINT Mission Managers.x, xi, xii, xiii

Empower users and teams to combine earned points and nominate commercial offerings 

to meet mission needs 

NGA will stimulate innovation by enabling analysts to identify commercial capabilities via 

e-marketplaces to solve complex mission requirements, communicate needs to industry, 

and remain on the leading edge.

Users will dynamically communicate their needs through NGA engagement tools and 

teams to industry, and in turn, industry will more frequently update market offerings to 

meet current mission needs, ensuring capabilities acquired add value to missions.

TOOLS

ANALYTIC PLATFORMS

ECOSYSTEM FOR

MISSION INFLUENCE

e-MARKETPLACES

GeoQ Open source, geospatial 

platform with crowdsourced 

workflow. It integrates 

numerous sources into a single 

operational picture, enabling 

analysts to choose their view to 

map features of crisis affected 

areas, and quickly disseminate 

updates to first responders.x

NOME NSG Open Mapping 

Enclave, volunteered 

geographic information 

operational prototype. It enables 

trusted users on multiple 

domains to easily create or 

modify foundation data and 

dynamically update content to 

support ongoing production for 

operations worldwide.xi

H4D Hacking for DefenseTM

lean framework to address 

Department of Defense (DoD) 

and IC challenges. Crossdisciplinary teams tackle high 

level problem statements to 

scope a problem for industry 

and academia to explore 

technology solutions through a 

real world scenario challenge.xii

SpaceNet Open data initiative 

with IQT Lab CosmiQ Works to 

foster innovation in automation 

of imagery analytic tasks. It 

brings a collaborative approach 

from machine learning analysis 

to commercial imagery and 

training data in order to 

develop algorithms to extract 

information.xiii
9

Reward industry for resolving operational problems in incubators and technology hubs to develop capabilities 

NGA will focus incubators and tech hubs on operationally relevant missions, by rewarding industry financially or 

with more work for developing solutions with direct application to USG missions.

By adjusting our goals at a higher tempo, NGA will influence the rate of innovation, embolden partners to fail fast, 

and cultivate the ability to adapt and learn; all driven by rewards for solving community requirements.

Rewards will range from assisting nascent partners to understand NSG needs, adding transparency to NSG 

acquisition routes, and connecting strategic partners and networks to be successful in the NSG.

Diversify investments to take advantage of opportunities, mitigate risks, and fortify GEOINT Assurance 

NGA will identify an allocation of integrated requirements across sources based on mission priorities, using 

mission management GEOINT plans, to maintain an appropriate mix of sources and suppliers.

We will make informed investments of both data and resources in order to 

influence diversity in commercial capabilities, where mission and market 

trends align.

NGA will invest and fund to sustain an appropriate mix of sources to 

balance opportunity and diminish risk through safety in numbers, based on 

CGA identification, GACoP assessments, and IQT investments.

Streamline policy and regulatory environment for commercial operating licenses to reduce barriers to entry 

Through policy forums, NGA will encourage the USG to reform the operating license environment to:

(1) Exercise authority to resolve or elevate issues in a timely manner;

(2) Add transparency and predictability to processes, as missions diversify and new unique sensors emerge;

(3) Avoid redundant reviews, by all parties in the process, of less capable systems;

(4) Encourage communication between policy forums and regulatory authorities.

NGA will embrace its strategic leadership role in the geospatial industry, for the US to maintain a security and 

economic advantage in the context of global competition.

Accelerate + Acquire mission relevant commercial GEOINT capabilities that are sufficiently mature 

NGA’s acquisition approach will become more responsive. Where mission utility meets commercial maturity, NGA will 

expedite acquisitions. NGA will smartly employ automation to accelerate the use of commercial GEOINT in analysis and 

production, to multiply the force of big data, gain insight, and improve decision making. NGA will prepare analysts to 

remain current on the nuances of working with unclassified, open source methods and tools. Missions demand sharing 

with trusted partners and will drive flexibility in end user licenses, data protection plans, and IP rights in contracts. 

Customer needs, technical assessments, and capability maturity will demand diverse commercial acquisition options.

e-Marketplaces

AUTOMATION

TOOLS

ACCELERATE USE

AUTOMATE ACCESS

SOURCES

SUPPLIERS

SERVICES

MISSION

NEEDS

PRIORITIZATION

GEOINT BROKER

“How do we actually begin to automate in a way that gives time back to analysts ... There are a thousand things 

we want to do with artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, computer vision ... You have to go 

after a manageable problem, solve it, show early wins and then ... go after all of these other challenges...”

— US Air Force Lt. Gen. John N.T. “Jack” Shanahan

Director for Defense Intelligence (Warfighter Support), Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, May 14, 2017 XV
10

Elevate achievable efforts and mature solutions for mission application of commercial GEOINT

In order to accelerate commercial GEOINT acquisitions, NGA will expedite achievable and mature solutions by 

identifying “low hanging fruit” and acting where mission readiness and industry maturity coincide.xiv

We will start with achievable efforts that won’t interfere with analysts’ work or distract from mission focus; we will avoid 

the desire to solve the hardest problems or improve exquisite analysis with initial capabilities. 

As a Combat Support Agency, NGA will embrace rapid acquisition policies, processes, and authorities institutionalized 

by DoD and accelerate commercial acquisitions to address DoD operational needs.

Leverage commercial automation to augment conventional analysis and buy back time for higher end analysis

NGA will augment analysis to seek efficiency gains and time/resource savings by automating time intensive tasks 

and repetitive observations, starting with change detection, feature extraction, and data conflation.xv

Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and Augmentation (AAA) will focus this effort for NGA to address full motion 

video (FMV), structured observation management (SOM), and broad area search.

We will use Wayfarer with USG, academic, and industry partners and mobilize high performance computing power 

necessary to apply analytic models to massive collections of big data for deep learning.xvi

Prepare the workforce for commercial GEOINT by training early in unclassified open source methods

Industry must offer training as a service and standard offering, by being prepared to train the workforce on 

capabilities and use cases tied to missions that encourage adoption of commercial GEOINT.

NGA will train the workforce by updating existing courses to address analytic standards, techniques, OPSEC, licenses, 

marking, and classification with tradecraft examples of what can be done in commercial and open source locations.

Contract simply with broadest possible license framework to share with partners and strengthen relationships

NGA will standardize how commercial GEOINT is licensed, building on the flexible base of USG end user licenses and 

government purpose rights to support USG mission sharing. 

We will maintain an ability to support coordinated public release, limited public release for disaster support, and 

license uplifts of large amounts of data to drive innovation in technology challenges and hackathons.

NGA will reinforce foreign partner relationships that embrace broad user licenses in contracts to promote sharing, 

as MGCP builds bonds of partnership in peacetime to enable greater support to warfighters.

Embrace dynamic e-marketplaces with diverse contract alternatives integrated into the platforms

NGA will embrace responsiveness in contracting to reduce acquisition timelines and overcome bureaucratic 

processes, by capitalizing on multiple options from a variety of contracts.xvii

USG e-marketplaces will permit wide internal audiences, while aligning organizational procurement authorities to 

appropriate officials to better inform acquisitions.

NGA and industry will adopt “fly before buy” trial practices to understand capabilities prior to acquisition.xviii

“The expected computational load from significant analytical investments in structured observation management, 

full-motion video, and foundation GEOINT is a major driver for accelerating NGA’s higher computing capabilities...” 

— Peter Highnam, Ph.D., NGA Research Director, August 21, 2017 xvi
11

Adapt + Integrate commercially enabled operations to keep pace with mission requirements

The rapid pace of commercial GEOINT innovation demands a posture of flexibility and adaptation. Conducting 

information technology (IT) development for commercial GEOINT at an unclassified level with a development 

operations (DevOps) approach is beneficial for the replication of capabilities on different networks. By establishing 

direct access to commercial providers’ processing environments, NGA will enable our analysts to interact with 

data at its storage source, where security risks are acceptable. Ease of discovery, access, and delivery are 

critical to use and adaptation, through mainstream exposure of commercial GEOINT in existing workflows.

Enable a DevOps environment, when industry offers 60% solution procure services with industry expertise

In order to remain on the leading edge of GEOINT capabilities, the NSG will enable a DevOps approach to 

environments and processes to improve access to and interaction between data, people, and knowledge.

GEOINT Services leads the way with support from Dev Corps, Data Corps, and Agency Data Professionals.

NGA will encourage analysts to embrace this approach by enabling application programming interface (API) calls 

to data stacks and data at rest, offering “plug and play” tools, and running algorithms in the background.

Protect systems with accreditation and authorization of commercial delivery to uphold GEOINT Assurance

We will ensure system security by vigorously embracing automated accreditation and authorization, data integrity, 

validation, and OPSEC methods including steganography and anti-spoofing.

NGA will pursue OPSEC and anonymity of access, working with trusted partners to protect the NSG.

Expose commercial GEOINT to the workforce through existing analytic workflows

We will change corporate culture, surrounding commercial GEOINT use, by requiring mainstream exposure 

through integration into existing analytic and production workflows, including Cedalion and FG Modernization.

NGA will promote discovery and use by enabling commercial services on multiple networks via caching or 

connectivity, automating cross domain, and offering familiar exploitation tools in unclassified domains.

Standardizing commercial service flows and sharing data feeds in structured ingestible formats will foster use by 

saving time, resources, and effort to add value with commercial GEOINT and not disrupt workflows.

Develop adaptive processes and architecture to readily integrate commercial sources into operational baseline

NGA will adapt its architecture, acquisition, and governance processes for the NSG to improve on the integration 

and delivery of commercial GEOINT; we will prioritize integration by mission.

By urging industry and the NSG to geospatially tag and condition commercial GEOINT data, NGA will accelerate 

data ingest, automated discovery, and integration of commercial GEOINT in order to enable analytic functions.

We will expand dynamic and flexible content management services to support FG and analytic production with FG 

Modernization and SOM; updating content in the cloud offers flexibility for suppliers and producers.

NI TEGRATE

EXPOSE

PROTECT

ENABLE

ADAPT

ADAPTIVE INTEGRATION

“Achieving the necessary interoperability demands all sources adhere to appropriate standards and also that the 

resulting information be geospatially tagged to allow for automated discovery as metadata can describe its own 

structure to the entity seeking to use it.” 

— Collaboration and Commercialization of the GEOINT Business, The State and Future of GEOINT 2017, USGIF xix
12

SUMMARY

This Commercial GEOINT Strategy provides a roadmap for the community to ride the wave of commercial GEOINT, delivering a range of 

commercial products and services to improve decision making.

We will establish transparency with customers and industry through communication, collaboration, and feedback to 

unify our effort

We will leverage GEOINT Assurance by verifying commercial GEOINT offerings and workflows to 

build trust and confidence in integration for mission application

We will use informed investments and incentives with industry, our workforce, and the community to 

promote diversity, innovate, and remain relevant as the operating environment transforms

We will augment analysis by automating repetitive observations and integrating secure commercial alerting to 

build toward anticipatory intelligence with geospatial analytic models

We will secure strategic competitive advantage from commercial GEOINT by working with trusted partners to 

outpace our adversaries

As an evolving strategy, no specific end state exists. Imperatives, activities, and feedback will guide the path forward. Stakeholder 

collaboration across the community is essential to create the adaptive, constantly improving environment we seek. Mission informs and 

prioritizes everything we do.
13

REFERENCES

GUIDANCE

GEOINT Assessment Handbook, February 2018

National Defense Strategy, January 2018

National Security Strategy, December 2017

Fiscal Year 2020-2024 NGA Planning Guidance, December 2017

NGA Automation, Artificial Intelligence and Automation (AAA) Strategy, November 2017

GEOINT Broker Concept of Operations (CONOPS), October 2017

NGA Creating a Data-Enabled Workforce: A Holistic Plan for Positions, Recruitment, Training and Organization, October 2017

NGA Geospatial Data Partnership for the Future: Creating National Competitive Advantage Through Commercial Geospatial Innovation, August 2017

NSG Strategy: Strength Through Community, May 2017

NGA Acquisition Strategy, August 2016

NGA Strategy 2015, Amended May 2016

GEOINT CONOPS 2022, April 2016

Commercial GEOINT Strategy, October 2015

POLICY

NSG Directive (NSGD) 1100, Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) Functional Management, 2 August 2014

Department of Defense Instruction (DoDI) 3115.15, Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT), 6 December 2011

Presidential Policy Directive (PPD) 4, National Space Policy of the United States of America, 28 June 2010

Department of Defense Directive (DoDD) 5105.60, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), 29 July 2009

Intelligence Community Directive (ICD) 113, Functional Managers, 19 May 2009

National Security Presidential Directive (NSPD) 27, US Commercial Remote Sensing Policy, 25 April 2003
14

END NOTES

i GAUTHIER, D. (2017 09 19). NGA Strategy. 2nd Annual GEOINT & Open Source Analytics Summit. NGA 17-865, p. 5.

ii NGA (2017 08). NGA Geospatial Data Partnership for the Future: Creating National Competitive Advantage Through Commercial 

Geospatial Innovation. NGA 170714-012, p. 36.

iii NGA (2017 08). NGA Geospatial Data Partnership for the Future: Creating National Competitive Advantage Through Commercial 

Geospatial Innovation. NGA 170714-012, p. 33.

iv NGA (2017 08). NGA Geospatial Data Partnership for the Future: Creating National Competitive Advantage Through Commercial 

Geospatial Innovation. NGA 170714-012, p. 23, 32.

v CARDILLO, R. (2017 05 19). Fiscal Year 2018 Priorities and Posture of the National Security Space Enterprise. NGA Director, Statement 

for the Record before the House Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, p. 4.

vi SKINNER, J. (2017). A ‘SOLVER’ MENTALITY: FINDING ANSWERS THROUGH HACKATHONS. NGA Pathfinder, Vol. 15, No. 2, 2017, p.29-

30.

vii RASMUSSEN, C. (2016 01). GEOINT Pathfinder, Sprint 1, After Action Report (AAR). NGA, p. 23, 26.

viii NGA (2017 10 15). NGA Creating a Data-Enabled Workforce: A Holistic Plan for Positions, Recruitment, Training and Organization.

NGA, p. 3, 19.

ix NGA (2018 02 01). GEOINT Assessment Handbook. NGA, v1.2, p. 6

x BAUER, R. (2015 06 02). GeoQ Overview. Retrieved from: https://github.com/ngageoint/geoq/wiki/GeoQ-overview

xi CARDILLO, R. (2017 05 19). Fiscal Year 2018 Priorities and Posture of the National Security Space Enterprise. NGA Director, Statement 

for the Record before the House Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Strategic Forces.

xii CARDILLO, R. (2016 09 27). NGA Director, Statement for the Record before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

xiii CARDILLO, R. (2016 09 27). NGA Director, Statement for the Record before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

xiv Comments on Beachfront, prepared remarks for CARDILLO, R. (2017 06 05). NGA Director, USGIF GEOINT Symposium, p. 4.

xv Quote by USAF Lt. Gen. John N.T. “Jack” Shanahan, Director for Defense Intelligence (Warfighter Support) in WEISGERBER, M. (2017, 05 14). The 

Pentagon’s New Algorithmic Warfare Cell Gets Its First Mission: Hunt ISIS. DefenseOne: http://www.defenseone.com/ technology/2017/05/

pentagons-new-algorithmic-warfare-cell-gets-its-first-mission-hunt-isis/137833/

xvi Quote by Peter Highnam, Ph.D., NGA Research Director in ARIANS, A. (2017). SUPERCOMPUTING: MAXIMIZING DECISION ADVANTAGE. 

NGA Pathfinder, Vol. 15, No. 2, 2017, p.10-13.

xvii FOERCH, A. (2017 08 16). Accelerating Acquisition. Trajectory Magazine. Retrieved from http://trajectorymagazine.com/accelerating-acquisition/

xviii RASMUSSEN, C. (2016 01). GEOINT Pathfinder, Sprint 1, After Action Report (AAR). NGA, p. 17.

xix DE AMELLER, R., FARNSWORTH, R., GAUTHIER, D., SPURIA, L., TRUITT, S. (2017). Collaboration and Commercialization of the GEOINT 

Business. The State and Future of GEOINT 2017, USGIF, p. 14-18.

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