 DNI Clapper on 

the Genesis of 

GEOINT

	Persistence

How we get 

and convey 

geospatial 

intelligence

 Enterprise 

Challenge
| editor's message |

Call it what you will — transforming, evolving, 

advancing — the world of geospatial intelligence, 

and those who have access to it and a need for it, is 

changing and growing exponentially. This issue of 

Pathfinder addresses that certainty. 

Good guys, bad guys, Wall Street investors, lost 

travelers, intelligence analysts — all want to capture 

and use time and space knowledge to their advantage. 

But in the game of realpolitik — the “who” question isn’t nearly as important 

as asking “what and how.” What separates the quality and accuracy of that 

information and how it’s used are the real game-changers. 

Today’s GEOINT environment is a survival game of the fittest, and who 

picks the best strategy determines who makes it to the next round.

In the last decade, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has been the 

reigning GEOINT champ. Director Robert Cardillo plans to keep it that way. 

At the 2015 GEOINT Symposium last June, Cardillo announced NGA’s 

game plan — the new strategy — and its roster of players — Team GEOINT. 

According to Charles Darwin’s “Origin of Species,” the species that survives 

is the one that is best able to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in 

which it finds itself.

Adapting and adjusting applies to organizations as well. In one of this 

issues’ cover stories, “Persistence: How We Get and Convey Geospatial 

Intelligence” [page 24], you’ll read about how NGA is adapting and 

adjusting its GEOINT strategic initiatives. 

Another relevant Darwin quote worth noting is, “In the long history of 

humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and 

improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

If there were such a thing as the GEOINT Survivor playbook, the Team 

GEOINT concept would come straight from its pages. Read “Team 

GEOINT Goes to Sea” [page 20], and “Enterprise Challenge” [page 26] as 

examples of how the agency is collaborating with Team GEOINT to ensure 

success and longevity.

Finally, in my interview with the Director of National Intelligence, James 

Clapper, he reflects on his leadership in the days following 9/11 and the 

“Genesis of GEOINT” [page 30].

In today’s GEOINT game, our adversaries are the real competitors. Given 

the diverse array of threats, the stakes have never been higher.

V/r,

Regina Galvin

Editor

pathfinder@nga.mil

www.nga.mil

@NGA_GEOINT

NatlGEOINTAgency

we strengthen the 

nation through our 

command of geospatial 

intelligence

The Pathfinder promotes awareness and 

understanding of geospatial intelligence, 

and is published by National GeospatialIntelligence Agency’s Office of Corporate 

Communications.

The Pathfinder is an authorized Department 

of Defense publication for members of the 

DOD. Contents of this publication are not 

necessarily the official view of, or endorsed 

by, the U.S. government, DOD or NGA. 

Articles in the Pathfinder may be reproduced 

in whole or in part without permission, 

unless stated otherwise. If reproduced, credit 

the author and the “National GeospatialIntelligence Agency, the Pathfinder 

magazine.” Reproduction of graphics, 

photographs and imagery is subject to 

the original copyright.

NGA Leadership

Director: Robert Cardillo

Deputy Director: Sue Gordon

OCC Leadership

Director: William M. Caniano

News & Information Chief: Tim Taylor

Editor: Regina Galvin

Designer: Carmella Bender

Contributing Editor: Kelly Graveline

Photography: Anthony Boone, Rob Cox

Contact us

Send letters to the editor to 

Pathfinder@nga.mil

Telephone: 571-557-5400

DSN 547-5400

Approved for Public Release, 15-595.
| SUMMER 2015 PATHFINDER | V

30

8 20

4 Team NGA

8 Viewpoint

12 Understand the World

14 Insight

18 Telling Our Story

20 Collaboration

32 Show the Way

34 Know the Earth

24 THE TRANSFORMING 

WORLD OF GEOINT

Persistence: How we 

get and convey 

geospatial intelligence

26 ENTERPRISE 

CHALLENGE 

Demonstration reveals 

how GEOINT tools and 

tradecraft have 

transformed

30 THE GENESIS OF 

GEOINT

FEATURES

DEPARTMENTS
4 Pathfinder | S

| TE

NGA Salu

Lt. Col. Allison D

By Jacquelyn Karpovich, NGA Office of Corporate Communications

Photo by Tony Boone
Pathfinder | SUM

| TE

When your kid comes home from college and says, “Mom, look what I did today,” you 

might expect an article published in the school paper, an A on an exam or even an 

ill-advised tattoo. Most parents don’t expect their daughter, who never participated in 

organized team activities or showed any interest in the military, to suddenly announce she’s 

joined the National Guard.

“I decided on the military when I was in college and starving,” said Army Lt. Col. Allison Day. 

Much to her parents’ and Day’s surprise, she enjoyed her basic training experience — so 

much so that when she returned to school, she joined the Army ROTC program. 

“When I came back to college, I looked at other majors because I really was not happy with 

my current major, journalism,” said Day. “I was good at it, but I just wasn’t excited about 

it. So, after I came back from basic training, I had this confidence that I could do all kinds 

of other stuff and I ended up switching to forestry. It was math and science and things I had 

avoided all my life. I had to work really hard, but I enjoyed it so much that I ended up doing 

really well in it.”

After her five years in the National Guard, Day graduated college and was commissioned in 

the Army, where she’s served for the last 20 years.

“I think that everybody should serve the country somehow,” said Day, who had also explored 

options with the Peace Corps before joining the National Guard. “The military is very cool in 

that you get a little slice of the whole American pie. I get to work with people from New Jersey 

and Alaska and Samoa and just wherever, so it’s been a very broadening experience for me.” 

And, it turns out that forestry degree was the start of a career for Day in the military. Her 

first tour was with a topographic unit in Hawaii doing terrain analysis. After a company 

command in Fort Riley, Kansas, Day applied and was selected for a fully-funded graduate 

school program with a follow-on assignment to the U.S. Military Academy. She earned a 

master’s degree in remote sensing and geospatial information systems from the University of 

Wisconsin, Madison, and then taught geography, photogrammetry and surveying at West Point. 

In her current position, Day’s background serves her well at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. She works in the Military Support directorate where she supports the acquisitions process for the military services, analyzing the geospatial needs of emerging and future 

land warfare systems. 

“We look at their standards and what they are proposing and how they plan to use our 

data,” said Day. “I check and see — are we still going to be producing that? Are there new 

things coming out that would be more efficient? Is it going to be interoperable? Having my 

background helps me understand the standards, system capabilities, and how the program fits 

into the larger geospatial enterprise.”

Much of Day’s career has been spent achieving a balance between work, military 

deployment, education and family. 

“Balance is the big thing,” said Day. “Whereas maybe I used to volunteer for a lot more 

things, I have to be realistic in my expectations for everything now. So, maybe I don’t 

volunteer to lead Boy Scouts, but I will sure help and be involved.”

Day’s advice for work-life balance, “Know your limits and don’t expect to be perfect 

at everything.”

With four children ranging from 10 years to 6 months old, Day said that “everything kind of 

focuses around the munchkins right now.” And, it seems her education and career interests are 

already inspiring the next generation of her family.

“They can read a map very well,” she said. The family does a lot of camping, hiking and 

biking and Day said they check out every museum possible, but especially the area battlefields. 

“My eight-year-old can pick out the War of 1812 uniform versus a Civil War uniform, so they 

enjoy dressing up,” said Day. “They do play soldier, but they also really like being astronauts.”

Day retires from the military in January 2016, but it’s that first experience in basic training 

that still holds some of the most meaningful lessons for her.

“Just because you haven’t done something doesn’t mean you won’t be great at it,” said Day. 

“You have to have confidence that as long as you work hard at something, you can do whatever 

you set your mind to. I think that lesson learned, that I got from basic training, has applied to 

everything I have ever done since.” 

Know a service member worthy of an NGA Salute? 

Send your suggestion to Pathfinder@nga.mil.
6 Pathfinder | S

| TE

I AM NGA 

Ama

By Kris Mackey, Office of Corporate 

Communications

Amanda Park is a self-proclaimed 

workaholic. She won the National 

Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s 

Analyst of the Year in 2014 but 

insists she was “just doing her job.” 

When asked about her professional 

accomplishments, she prefers to change 

the subject and boast about her two 

Chihuahuas, Biskit and Brady, and her 

wife, whom she says she rarely sees 

due to her work.

Park was born in Sevilla, Spain, and 

raised in northern California outside 

of Beale Air Force Base where her 

father was stationed and where 

her interest for the U.S. 

military was born. 

“At the time, Beale was 

home to the [Lockheed 

SR-71] Blackbird and the 

U-2. When I was 17, my 

father took me to the 9th 

Reconnaissance Technical 

Group and I was able to see 

an actual roll of SR-71 film. 

From then on, I was hooked,” 

said Park.

After high school, Park graduated 

from photo interpretation school and 

served seven years in the Air Force. Her 

last assignment was to the United States 

Central Command in Tampa, Florida. 

When she separated from the service, 

she was immediately hired by the 

National Imagery and Mapping Agency 

as one of the original 117 analysts 

deployed to support teams around the 

world. She has been with NGA for the 

last 20 years and now serves as a senior 

GEOINT analyst. 

Jose “Joe” Estrada-Rivera, deputy 

chief of the NGA Support Team to 

CENTCOM, said Park’s knowledge 

base is impressive. 

“Her military experience helps her 

put things into operational context, and 

her guidance is highly valued by the 

command,” said Estrada-Rivera.

 Park’s primary role is to understand 

and influence the analytical effort and 

direction of the NST and to advise 

analysts and managers at all levels 

on GEOINT tradecraft, said Park’s 

supervisor, Patrick Holden. 

“In this role, she researches internal 

and external production, level of 

effort and requirements, and provides 

unbiased information to NST leadership 

so they can ensure the proper 

employment of our limited resources,” 

Holden said. “Park is that person you 

want in the conversation before making 

decisions that could make or break an 

NST mission.” 

Because of Park’s subject matter 

expertise, last summer she was called 

on by NST leadership, flag officer 

leadership within the Director of 

Intelligence office, and people at the 

Director of Operations level for critical 

mission support.

“Park also provides substantive 

awareness of regional issues throughout 

the Middle East, Near East, and South 

and Southwest Asia,” said Holden. 

“Most importantly, she is charged with 

mentoring analysts across the NST due 

to her vast knowledge, experience, and 
| TE

Pathfinder | SUM

being well-liked and respected here.”

According to Holden, Park has 

mentored hundreds of analysts in 

her 20 years and various roles with 

CENTCOM. 

“She has helped developed some of 

the best analysts in the community due 

to her selfless service and mentoring 

abilities, as evidenced by the five NGA 

analysts that were either quarterly 

or yearly award winners under her 

mentorship,” Holden said.

Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer 

Joshua M. Didier, an intelligence 

specialist, is a product of Park’s 

mentorship. They worked together 

for four years at CENTCOM, both in 

Tampa and overseas. 

“Amanda Park is my friend, boss, 

mentor, leader, manager and subject 

matter expert,” said Didier.

Early in his career, Park was Didier’s 

supervisor. He credits her as having an 

immediate impact on his career. 

“Our initial interactions were rocky. 

I was a young analyst with limited 

experience. I found her extreme 

attention to detail frustrating, but her 

passion for all things geospatial and her 

outgoing personality were inspiring,” 

said Didier. “We became dear friends 

during long hours, working products 

on conflicts in Yemen where I quickly 

realized how respected she is at NGA 

and in the CENTCOM community for 

her knowledge and her passion.”

 Didier said Park is the greatest 

driving force behind his leadership style. 

“When she became the USCENTCOM NST operations officer, I became 

her deputy,” Didier said. “She taught 

me that you must set a standard for 

your people and never erode your 

goals to meet modified objectives. She 

explained that people enjoy their work 

and want to work with a leader who 

helps them achieve things they didn't 

know they could accomplish.”

Didier said that Park’s tough 

approach is balanced with humor and 

accessibility. 

“She always keeps her door open to 

give advice, professional or personal, 

and she can always make you laugh,” 

said Didier.

Park’s reputation has her on call for 

briefing or hosting countless civilian 

and military dignitaries, which have 

included four NGA directors, then 

CENTCOM commander, General 

Tommy Franks, several CENTCOM 

intelligence directors, the director 

of Australia's Defence Imagery and 

Geospatial Organisation, and others. 

For all of Park’s success, she remains 

humble.

“I just think I do my job well and I 

want to share my knowledge and work 

ethic with others,” Park said. “I work 

too much, spend too little time with 

those I care about, and am in a constant 

state of sleep deprivation. That’s not a 

complaint. I thrive in that environment. 

But, if anyone knows of a 12-step program for workaholics that can be done 

on an abbreviated schedule, like three 

steps in one day, please contact me.” 

Park and her wife enjoying some rare family time.
| VIEWP

8 Pathfinder | S

Reay or

The Mov

Personal 

Infrast

 By David J. Coleman, Ph. D.

Editor’s note: The analysis and opinions represented in this 

article are strictly the author’s and do not necessarily reflect 

the positions of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, 

the intelligence community or the Department of Defense.

The term “spatial data infrastructure” has come to mean 

that critical mass of processes, policies, standards, enabling 

technologies, mechanisms and key datasets required in 

a jurisdiction to make geospatial data readily available 

to a growing community of end users. Especially over 

the past two decades, government organizations have 

invested billions of dollars in SDI implementation through 

development and updating of digital framework datasets, 

metadata creation efforts, and development of Web-based 

geoportals for access and downloading of geospatial datasets. 

Today, we take for granted the legacy of these SDI 

programs. Location-based services on smartphones, smart 

cars and wearable computers all make use of the positioning 

and mapping infrastructure originally put in place to 

support public-sector national SDI programs in the United 

States, Canada, Australia, Europe and elsewhere around the 

world. Many of us now depend on location-aware mobile 

applications to help us find particular locations, and even 

each other. Updates to existing map features (particularly 

roads and trails) are provided voluntarily through user 

contributions or sometimes unconsciously by users of these 

apps as the locations of their cellphones and other navigation 

devices are tracked in real time. 

We are now seeing significant private investments 

in proprietary positioning and mapping infrastructures, 

including mobile apps, to support indoor — think shopping 

malls, sport stadiums, museums — location-based services 

for navigation, customer tracking and business intelligence, 

distribution logistics, and emergency response. 

These apps will enable consumers to search and find 

products, services or points of interest within a given 

facility. Once there, customers or visitors can access further 

information about a product or service and, in some cases, 

information on similar or competing nearby products and 

services. Integrated with information from other sensors and 

point-of-sale terminals, such information offers valuable 

business intelligence to businesses and organizations.

As long-time smartphone and tablet users, and now 

users of smart cars and watches, we have come to expect 

seamless interaction between key applications on our various 

devices. Just like our email interacts with our contacts 

database when we send messages, “geofencing” services 

trigger certain actions whenever someone leaves or enters a 

given geographical area. Going forward, the challenge is to 

determine which particular combinations of integrated apps 

or channels of mobile information services consumers will 

use to create their own personal SDI, or pSDI. In pSDIs, 

standardized services, agreements and device interoperability 

will enable users to: (1) learn and predict patterns of usage, 

consumption and travel (major/minor, outside/inside) over 

time; (2) select and integrate data from a wide range of 

different public, private, social and personal data channels; 

and (3) employ the results to seamlessly and transparently 

meet the unique needs of a person in different personal, 

business and social contexts. 

But aren't all the services we require for a pSDI either 

already available or in testing today as part of individual 

apps or services?

Well, yes they are — a least to some extent. That said, 

many such indoor navigation and tracking services are still 

standalone and rely on different standards for positioning and 

communications. They do not operate well or exchange data 

easily with services offered by other vendors, and may not 

offer seamless and consistent positioning service and accuracy. 
Pathfinder | SUM

| VIEWP

Further, as attractive or useful as these services sound, 

they can come at the price of your privacy. In today’s 

online marketplace, if you are not paying for a product, 

then chances are you may be the product. Collection of 

information concerning online browsing and purchase 

decisions is now commonplace, as is tracking the location 

of individual cellphones and other devices. By collecting 

and integrating information from the various apps and 

services you use daily on different devices, a virtual profile 

representing your daily movements, consumer preferences, 

personal opinions, relationships and travel plans may be 

created — with or without your knowledge.

Privacy regulations vary from country to country, and 

no single organization has easy and integrated access to all 

the online social networking, financial transactions, Web 

browsing and personal navigation activities that transact 

on a daily basis. That said, we can expect that: (1) several 

organizations will have access to different subsets of that 

information; and (2) higher and broader levels of integration 

will continue to take place in the near future. 

Further, experience shows that such services, 

whether inside or outside government, are susceptible 

to cybersecurity breaches. For further consideration, I 

recommend reading, “Technocreep,” a recent book by 

Thomas Keenan, which offers examples and assessments of 

the privacy risks involved in today’s online society.

David Coleman is president of the Global Spatial Da

Infrastructure Association (http://www.gsdi.org) and a professor 

in the Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering at the

University of New Brunswick in Canada (http://gge.unb.ca). Hi

almost-40 year career in industry and academia includes work as 

a project engineer, company executive, consultant, educator and 

researcher. Contact him at dcoleman@unb.c

Regardless of your position or concerns on these matters, 

personal spatial data infrastructures are quickly becoming 

a reality. How consumers balance tradeoffs between 

convenience and personal privacy with respect to services 

built atop these infrastructures — and how consumers, 

legislators and legal systems around the world react — 

remains to be seen. 

Have an idea for a GEOINT or National Security Viewpoint 

contribution? Send your query to Pathfinder@nga.mil. 
10 Pathfinder | S

| VIEWP

WHAT TO READ 

ABOUT ISIL?

By Youssef Aboul-Enein 

The views expressed in this article are those of the author 

and do not reflect on the official policy or position of the 

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the National 

Intelligence University, the Department of Defense, or the 

United States Government.
Pathfinder | SUMM

| VIEWP

As a National Intelligence University 

faculty member who focuses on 

teaching about the nuances of Islam, 

Islamist political theories and militant 

Islamist groups, I have been asked what 

is there to read about the Islamic State 

of Iraq and the Levant? I am pleased to 

say an NIU student drew me towards 

one of only two serious books on this 

group published so far; meaning out of 

the slew of initial books on the group, 

only two have the kind of analytic rigor 

worthy of considering. The book my 

student recommended was Michael 

Weiss and Hassan Hassan’s volume, 

“ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror” (New 

York: Regan Arts, 2015). 

Michael Weiss is a columnist for 

Foreign Policy and Hassan Hassan is an 

analyst with the Delma Institute at Abu 

Dhabi. They start from the beginning, 

and discuss the spiritual origins of 

ISIL from the al-Qaida in Iraq and its 

founder, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The 

authors highlight Zarqawi’s vicious 

sectarian violence and note it was 

AQI that began the recruitment videos 

featuring music, action, violence 

and gore, realizing that Zawahiri 

monologues were not attracting a 

younger generation to the al-Qaida 

narrative. Pages offer nuances of 

perfect storms that enabled ISIL to take 

form from the violent handling of the 

Bashar al-Assad regime of Arab Spring 

protestors that fueled an insurgency 

to Iraq’s prime minister’s merciless 

Have an idea for a GEOINT or National Security 

Viewpoint contribution? Send your query to 

Pathfinder@nga.mil. 

sectarian politics that alienated the 

Sunnis. 

The killing of Zarqawi in 2006 and 

his predecessor Abu Ayyub al-Masri 

in 2010 creates a chaos within AQI 

that enables Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to 

take over. Chapters discuss the schisms 

within and between al-Qaida senior 

leaders and ISIL. The book also delves 

into the Syrian government’s role in 

enabling militant Islamists to cross into 

Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. 

Pages contain perhaps one of the more 

comprehensive biographies of Abu 

Bakr al-Baghdadi, weaved together 

from fact and fiction; I shall leave it to 

the reader to deduce proximate reality 

about the ISIL leader, also known as 

Caliph Ibrahim.

 The second serious book on ISIL 

is by Jessica Stern and J.M. Berger, 

well-known academics in the field of 

terrorism studies. Their book, “ISIS: 

The State of Terror” (New York: 

Ecco, 2015) also starts with AQI and 

Zarqawi and delves into aspects of 

the schisms inherent among various 

militant Islamist factions in Syria, and 

the fights between ISIL and Zawahiri 

that included ISIL’s likely assassination 

of a Zawahiri emissary. Readers will 

learn how the Khorasan Group would 

be a creation of AQ to compete with 

ISIL for recruits, and there is a decent 

discussion on the economics of ISIL. 

There is ample discussion and ideas 

on the level and influence of foreign 

fighters within ISIL’s ranks and 

provides thoughts on why those from 

the United States and Europe may be 

attracted to join the group. Like the first 

book, it analyzes the social media use 

by ISIL in recruitment, and delves into 

the nuances of how the organization 

funds itself and its pseudo-state. 

What is clear in both books is that 

the continued marginalization of the 

Sunni population in Iraq and Syria 

will continue to fuel the insurgency. 

That is why seeing how Sunnis will 

be treated after the take over of Tikrit 

by predominately Shia ground forces 

with some Sunni tribal support backed 

by Iran will be pivotal in the coming 

weeks. If you are interested in these 

books, visit the NGA Research Center. 

You can also get a book CD version of 

Jessica Stern and J.M Berger’s book 

for your commute or exercise routine. 

There is nothing like a deep dive 

offered by such books to aid in analytic 

rigor. I also thank my NIU student for 

educating me by introducing me to the 

Weiss and Hassan book. 

Editor’s Note: Navy Cmdr. AboulEnein is on the faculty of the National 

Intelligence University and teaches the 

graduate-level Islam elective. He is the 

author of several books on the Middle 

East, and is better known for his book 

“Militant Islamist Ideology” (Naval 

Institute Paperback, 2013). 
Information and map provided by 

NGA Office of Geography.

1. The U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility includes 20 countries in

Middle East and Central Asia, spanning an area of 4.6 million square miles.

2. According to the CIA World Fact Book, approximately 594.1 million people live in t

AOR as of July 2014. Pakistan is the most populous country and comprises 33 percent

of the AOR population, while Bahrain is the smallest with 1.3 million people. CENTC

area of responsiblity is also home to Kazakhstan, the world’s largest land-locked country.

3. Eleven of the world’s 20 oldest continually inhabited cities are located in the AOR. They includ

one city in Afghanistan (Balkh), two in Iraq (Kirkuk and Arbil), four in Lebanon (Tyre, Beirut, Sidon

and Byblos), one each in Egypt (Faiyum) and Iran (Shush), and two in Syria (Damascus and Aleppo

4. CENTCOM possesses the most energy resources of any AOR — 64 percent of the wo

petroleum reserves and 46 percent of the global natural gas reserves may be found here. 

Five of the 10 countries with the largest oil reserves are in this AOR; they includ

Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. The A

is also rich in other minerals and deposits. Globally, Kazakhstan is 

among the top 30 producers of gold. 

Afghanistan’s mineral deposits, which 

include copper, iron, aluminum, gold 

and silver, may be worth $1 trillion. 

Human Geography Facts about CENTCOM

centc

AREA 

12 Pathfinder | S

| UNDERSTAN
Pathfinder | SUMM

5. The shared border

between Afghanistan 

and Pakistan 

stretches more 

than 1,500 miles. 

Regional tribes (called 

qaums) and ethnic 

groups go back and forth between 

the two with ease. Afghanistan’s 

largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns, 

makes up approximately 42 percent of the 

country’s population and lives along the 

border; Pashtuns comprise 15.4 percent of 

Pakistan’s population. Baluchs also live on both 

sides of the border and comprise approximately 

2 percent of the Afghan population and 3.6 percent of 

Pakistan’s. In both Pakistan and Afghanistan, there is a Sunni Muslim 

majority (75 percent and 80 percent, respectively), although both 

countries have sizeable Shi’a populations. 

6. Central Asia is home to more than 100 ethnic groups,

and Islam is the dominant religion. More than 60 percent 

of Kazakhs are Muslim. In Tajikistan more than 90 percent

of the population is Muslim as well. Uzbekistan is the most

populous country in the region. 

7. Sunni Muslims comprise more than 90 percent of the 

population in Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Shi’a Muslims 

comprise nearly 90 percent of Iran’s population, and they are also the 

majority in Iraq and Bahrain. There are notable Shi’a communities in

Kuwait, Yemen, Lebanon, Qatar, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the United Ar

Emirates.

8. In Central Asia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have the most highly developed rai

and road systems. In Kazakhstan alone, which boasts the most regional rail traffic, 

there are 100,000 kilometers of roads and 20,000 kilometers of railways. In contrast, 

Kyrgyzstan has merely 450 kilometers of railways. 

9. Water, although not scarce, is an important and contentious issue in Central Asia

The region’s outdated infrastructure and irrigation methods lead to extensive waste.

Uzbekistan needs large amounts of water to support its cotton industry, which is one of

the backbones of its economy. However, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan want to use the water

for hydropower plants, both for their own internal consumption and for exports as they 

have few other industries to draw on. Uzbekistan is afraid that Kyrgyzstan and Tajikista

will use the plant dams to withhold the water they need to grow cotton. 

10. In addition to ethnic, religious and linguistic ties, economic ties exist between 

Afghanistan and Pakistan. Afghanistan is a major exporter to Pakistan. Most of 

Afghanistan’s exports to Pakistan are raw materials used in manufacturing and 

production, and thus often end up coming back to Afghanistan, making Afghanistan the 

number one importer of Pakistan goods. Yet overall, the relationship between the two

countries has been frosty. Both Afghanistan’s president, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadazi, and 

Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, have indicated interest in improving relations 

between the two countries.

| UNDERSTAN

” In the Middle East, we will 

dismantle terrorist networks ...

– National Security Strategy, 2015

“
| IN

The National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency wants to know what matters to 

its customers, partners and employees. 

Specifically, NGA wants to know 

which of their products and services 

these consumers find useful. Why? 

The agency is renewing its focus on 

delivering value to customers.

“Gaining a better understanding of 

what our customers value will enable 

us to better inform the effectiveness of 

our operations,” said Barry E. Schuler, 

the director of the agency’s Xperience 

directorate’s Business Intelligence office.

According to Schuler, NGA is 

transforming how it does business by 

better aligning what customers need to 

resource allocation and new capability 

investment. This transformation 

supports NGA’s strategic goal of 

driving accountability and value by 

tying program and performance to 

customer impact.

NGA Deputy Director Sue Gordon 

has stated that NGA must get smarter 

about what it can do to bring real value 

to customers. “And while we don’t like 

to focus on the negative, the truth of the 

matter is that if we don’t start holding 

ourselves accountable by measuring 

our part in our customers’ success, 

agency programs risk falling victim 

to the budgetary ax,” said Gordon. 

This is where the value of business 

intelligence, or BI, comes in.

NGA applies BI — which includes 

processes and technologies that 

transform large volumes of raw data 

into meaningful information — to 

understand and analyze national 

security issues. The same types of BI 

processes and technologies are helping 

NGA’s BI office gather insights to 

make smarter business decisions. 

And that education has already begun 

according to Keith Krut, chief of the 

Analytics division in NGA’s Xperience 

directorate’s BI office. 

“We're doing this, not only by 

gathering data and adding it up, but 

through identifying meaningful linkages 

and trends within and across data sets,” 

Krut said. “And that can provide the 

agency insights into the products and 

services customers value most.” 

According to Krut, BI can provide 

these insights at every level of the 

agency. For example, the Customer 

Compass webpage on the Globe — 

NGA’s secure web presence — allows 

agency analysts to see first-hand 

how many customers are accessing 

the online products they author. The 

Customer Compass, a BI dashboard, 

provides instant feedback to analysts on 

their work. 

And these metrics can reveal more 

than simply whether the customer 

is clicking on a product. Using the 

Customer Compass, analysts can 

also determine if the path to reach a 

GEOINT product requires too many 

clicks. That user behavior data is a 

direct reflection of what the customer 

values and can inform decisions from 

what GEOINT products the agency 

should focus on, down to where to 

feature the products on the Globe. 

BI is also poised to start informing 

decisions at the corporate level, 

according Todd Sweet, deputy director 

of NGA’s Xperience directorate’s 

Knowledge Curation office. Sweet 

wanted to explore how well NGA’s 

GEOINT Stories, a key feature of 

the Globe, aligned to customer need. 

GEOINT Stories — five stories on 

trending and important GEOINT topics 

that appear on the Globe homepage 

daily — are curated from multiple 

resources across various directorates. 

“Using the Customer Compass, I 

can show the value of GEOINT Stories 

as evidenced, not only by the number 

of customers clicking on them, but, 

more importantly, whether or not these 

stories are driving customers to explore 

the specific links to the NGA GEOINT 

products referenced in the stories,” 

said Sweet. 

Armed with customer behavior 

insights from reports and dashboards 

like the Customer Compass, decision 

makers can take steps to correct any 

misalignment between NGA resource 

allocation/capability investment and 

value to customers.

Behind the decision-informing 

power of BI is an intricate world of 

data engineering and processing that 

includes “big data” technologies. The 

agency is at the cusp of realizing the 

benefit of these technologies. Once 

in place, they will enable NGA data 

scientists to shift their focus from 

simply capturing and managing data 

to actively drawing insights from it for 

decision makers on a regular basis. 

“BI can be a game changer for 

organizations that seek to build 

effective customer relationships and 

improve strategic decision making,” 

said Christy Monaco, Xperience 

directorate deputy director. “As 

NGA evolves into a customer-centric 

enterprise with a keen emphasis 

on delivering consequence, datadriven decision making is a business 

imperative.” 

By Sara Barker, Xperience Communications

14 Pathfinder | S
| IN

Business Intelligence Challenges

By Sara Barker, Xperience Communications

The complex world of business intelligence poses some

challenges for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. 

Currently one of NGA’s biggest BI challenges is growing its data

science workforce. Data scientists — who use mathematics

and programming to deliver unique insights for decision makers 

based on data — are key to making BI a success at NGA.

“We need to foster a robust data science workforce,” says NGA

data scientist Kevin Compher. “A good data scientist is curious

and confident in taking risks with nontraditional approaches.” 

Data scientists have rigorous math and programming skills,

make sense of diverse data sources and draw out valuable 

insights from them. 

NGA's second BI challenge is the way its data is currently 

architected, or stored. 

“We currently have our data in silos,” says Compher. “An

the biggest problem with this is that silos don't automatically 

connect to each other and they don't scale.” 

To generate meaningful insights from these disparate data sets,

it is necessary to manually link 

them to each other. According 

to Compher, the lack of a usable

and impactful architecture can be 

frustrating NGA's data scientists 

and others who require it to 

generate meaningful insights for 

decision makers.

However, there is a hope ahead. A suite of capabilities that 

will advance data management is being envisioned under a 

program called Visualization Analytics Data Lake solution, o

VANDL. VANDL enables the agency to automate “joins” across 

disparate data sets. 

For example, under VANDL, data regarding customer deman

can be joined to data regarding gaps in production to reveal 

areas that need attention and, in turn, inform decisions regarding 

resource allocation.

According to Deputy Director Sue Gordon, NGA knows the dat

that it’s currently collecting would yield much more valuable 

insights when easily linked with other datasets. 

“VANDL is a no-brainer,” Gordon said. “We've got to move 

this direction.”

Pathfinder | SUMM

CONVEYANCE

BI Analysts across the 

agency use the metrics to 

generate dashboards and 

other reports that identify 

gaps between what NGA 

outputs and what 

customers value.

DATA

DATA DATA

DATA

DATA

DATA

DATA

DATA

DATA

Customer behavior and internal data collects 

in the Data Lake, which is the agency's 

repository of all external and internal BI data.

DATA

DATA

DATADATA

DATA

DATA

DATADATA

DATA

DATA

DATADATA

DATA

DATA DATA

DATA

DATA

DATA

DATA

DATA LAKE

I need GEOINT 

on XYZ

CUSTOMER

The customer interacts with NGA 

content (for example, by logging into 

the Globe, NGA's secure web presence, and researching a topic). This 

action generates customer behavior 

data that feeds into the BI lifecycle.

NGA'S BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE LIFECYCLE

Here is an example of how customer data moves through 

the Business Intelligence Lifecycle at NGA.

DATA SCIENCE 

& ANALYSIS DATA

The NGA Data Scientist joins, slices, 

dices and analyzes the data to 

reveal hidden patterns and trends. 

The Data Scientist prepares the 

data's transformation and extraction 

into metrics.

DATA

DATA

DATA

DATA

DATA DATADATA

DATA

DATA DATA

DATA

DATA

DATA

DATA

DATA DATA DATADATA

DATA

The NGA analyst inputs 

GEOINT content. This action 

generates internal data that 

feeds into the BI lifecycle. 

NGA ANALYST

EUREKA !!!

DECISION

MAKER

The NGA Decision Maker, 

armed with these insights, takes 

steps to correct any 

misalignment between NGA 

resource allocation/capability 

investment and value to 

customers.

Is NGA delivering 

value to our customers?

BI DASHBOARD

Illustration provided by Antone Malone, Xperience Communications

NGA'S BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE LIFECYCLE

Here is an example of how customer data moves through 

the Business Intelligence Lifecycle at NGA
16 Pathfinder | S

| IN

NGA CYBERSECURI

IN THE ERA OF THE 

ENTERPRISE BREACH

By Evan Frank, CIO-T Communications Team 

Addressing cybersecurity in his Feb. 26 statement for 

the record, “Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US 

Intelligence Community,” submitted to the Senate Armed 

Services Committee, Director of National Intelligence James 

Clapper highlighted a mission threat that the intelligence 

community must deeply consider as it moves toward greater 

transparency and engagement with both government and 

commercial partners.

“Cyber threats to U.S. national and economic security are 

increasing in frequency, scale, sophistication, and severity 

of impact,” Clapper wrote. “Overall, the unclassified 

information and communication technology networks that 

support U.S. Government, military, commercial, and social 

activities remain vulnerable to espionage and/or disruption.” 

These cyber threats, both internal and external, are 

orchestrated by independent groups and nation-states 

who seek to infiltrate combat support agencies like the 

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, an agency that 

collects, stores and shares vital geospatial information and 

intelligence affecting the warfighter on the ground, at sea, 

and in the air. 

The recent system breaches at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management are evidence of the increasingly advanced 

cyber threat, and the impact to more than 21 million people 

demonstrates the scale this type of unmitigated vulnerability 

can have on the federal government, its workforce and its 

mission. 

Yet the ability to conduct and support national security 

operations in an increasing open and transparent online 

environment — especially for GEOINT — remains a key to 

the success of the U.S. national security mission. 

As NGA continues to adopt cloud-based strategies and 

collaborate with industry leaders to move more into the 

open, its level of risk to cyber-attacks increases, and the 

OPM breach serves as a reminder that adversaries have a 

vested interest in stealing and exploiting vital government 

information and intelligence. 

To mitigate this threat to the GEOINT mission, NGA’s 

Cybersecurity Office, under Acting Chief Information 

Security Officer Matt Conner, works to ingrain sound 

cybersecurity at the root of the agency’s culture and daily 

operations to ensure the GEOINT data and products relied on 
Pathfinder | SUMM

| IN

by NGA’s mission partners and analysts are trustworthy and 

uncompromised.

“Historically, cybersecurity has been a parallel discipline, 

almost a black art,” Conner said. “We need to build security 

in and not bolt it on.” 

When applied across a massive enterprise, Conner stresses 

the importance of contextualization, turning an abstract 

concept into commonplace practice.

“As the Director [Cardillo] is fond of saying, conveying 

consequence and marrying context with content, we find the 

‘so what’,” Conner said. “We’re trying to look at enterprise 

risk assessment in association with mission areas, not as a 

[system] number or project X, but on the basis of mission 

safety. Instead of a pie chart of findings, the team says, 

‘NGA’s mission is at risk.”

For NGA, the majority of its cybersecurity expertise 

resides in the newly merged Office of the Chief Information 

Officer and IT Services directorate, known as CIO-T. But 

impactful cybersecurity requires engagement from everyone 

at NGA — from the analyst to the public affairs officer, 

with cybersecurity experts continuously partnering with the 

workforce to mitigate risk and ensure the safety of GEOINT 

information. 

Sara Hood, a cyber-focused GEOINT analyst, said that 

post-OPM breach, personnel within the Analysis and Source 

directorates are more aware of the threat and willing to 

take part in a coordinated effort to secure the network. 

She welcomes the idea of cybersecurity officers, system 

engineers and system administrators building better lines 

of communication with her team, if for nothing else than 

to explain the give-and-take in maintaining an acceptably 

secure and operational network.

“Our work has been so greatly affected,” said Hood, 

referring to the impacts of recent cybersecurity breaches. 

“People are very much aware of what could happen if proper 

security is not followed. We are not only responsible for 

securing NGA data, but other sources as well. I think we 

take that for granted sometimes. We are only as strong as our 

weakest link.”

NGA’s Cybersecurity Operations Cell has worked for 

more than two years across agency directorates and with 

external entities like U.S. Cyber Command to detect and 

deter cyber threats. Complementing the cell, the Cyber 

Operations branch fights daily to sustain system and policy 

compliance across enterprise systems, and the Cyber 

Assessment division’s blue team coordinates and conducts 

penetration testing to help identify impactful vulnerabilities 

for mitigation or removal. 

CAD deputy chief Mitch Smoot leads the blue team, 

a direct extension of the CS office’s reach across all 

NGA programs. Smoot understands the need for greater 

engagement through program and system lifecycles because 

his team helps serve this need. 

“We work directly with the cyber defenders, the security 

control assessors, and the system administrators to identify 

the root cause of vulnerabilities,” Smoot said. “We’ve had a 

positive influence. We’ve become the finders, the fixers, and 

the trainers.” 

As Conner said, the idea of building in the role of 

cybersecurity from beginning of system and program 

development is critical. To do so requires those outside 

of the cybersecurity workforce to gain a greater desire to 

incorporate cybersecurity by design, and an understanding of 

the risks to the GEOINT mission if these best practices are 

not put in place. 

“As NGA analysts, we need to understand there are state 

and non-state actors ready to utilize malicious tools to deny, 

destroy, degrade and disrupt our operations,” said NGA cyberfocused GEOINT analyst Bradley Wors. “This should be a 

constant reminder to the NGA workforce to remain vigilant 

and grasp the importance of cybersecurity as we continue to 

rely more heavily on advanced technology in the future.”

Conner is in the process of establishing the interaction 

that Hood and her team hope for through the Vulnerability 

Management Panel, a group initiative between CIO-T’s 

cyber operations experts and cyber-focused representatives 

from other NGA directorates. The goal of the panel is to 

help collaboratively frame the massive amounts of collected 

cybersecurity data for informed prioritization of risk and to 

allow IT executives to make better-informed funding and 

resourcing. Analysts like Hood will have the opportunity to 

work directly with the VMP. 

The most vigilant cybersecurity program cannot lock 

every backdoor opened through negligence or malevolence, 

so Conner and his CS division chiefs accept a certain 

level of risk not simply to sustain operations, but also to 

free resources to consider probable threats and focus on 

identifying and minimizing the most severe risks. Conner 

believes the VMP is the right direction to follow.

“Everything is ripe for us to get the attention we need,” 

Conner said. “All eyes are on us now, and we need to deliver.” 

NGA and its employees should remain vigilant in the 

cybersecurity mission space because, as former CSOC chief 

Dale North explained, eyes of all types will be on all of “us” 

for the foreseeable future. 

 “This is not a short-term problem,” North said. “Short 

term for the adversary is three to five years; long term is 10 

to 20 years. They are looking to develop individuals, find the 

weak spots. This is how it applies to NGA — everyone is not 

a [cybersecurity] analyst in our core mission, but everyone 

sits at a keyboard, from the director to the new pay band 2. 

That’s our target surface.”
18 Pathfinder | S

| TELLING 

Woki

Supe

Thomas M. Cooke, Foundational GEOINT Division, Rivanna Station NST 

“Lead, follow or get out of the way!” These words have 

resonated with me throughout my entire career, and they 

still hold true today. Having been a supervisor most of my 

13 years at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency 

as well as during my previous military service, I’ve seen 

firsthand that strong leaders in supervisory positions made 

the difference between success and failure. When the NGA 

Supervisory Council was established in 2011, I knew NGA 

understood this too, and I wanted to 

be part of it. 

The NGASC continues to mature 

and evolve, and has now picked up the 

gauntlet to lead the effort to deepen 

a corporate supervisory culture and 

further develop leaders within NGA. 

Last April, the NGASC Chair, Mark 

Spivey, briefed NGA’s Director 

Cardillo on the new NGASC mission 

statement, “to act as the stewards of 

the NGA supervisory profession” with a vision “to create, 

promote and sustain a supervisory culture for the 21st century 

NGA workforce.” Cardillo endorsed the vision, stating in 

a message to the workforce, “You have heard me say that I 

recognize and appreciate the difficulty and criticality of all 

our supervisors ... and it’s incumbent on all of us to spend 

the time and energy to ensure their success.” 

I consider it a privilege to be a supervisor, and when I 

became aware of the NGASC, I was more than excited 

to apply and to serve. Now that I’m a member, I truly 

appreciate the successes the forum has enjoyed by addressing 

the challenges facing supervisors across NGA. For example, 

the NGASC spearheaded the effort for the agency to adopt 

supervisory competencies as part of performance reviews 

and is now working toward a standard training curriculum 

for new supervisors. This initiative was only possible 

because a cadre of experienced supervisors were provided 

access through the NGASC to advise senior leadership on a 

significant issue. Most recently, the NGASC has partnered 

with the Mission-Talent Alignment and Career Services 

initiatives to assist supervisors in the critical role of advising 

and mentoring their subordinates on their future career 

aspirations. As Deputy Director Sue Gordon has told the 

workforce, Career Services is here to stay and supervisors 

can do wonders by understanding it. She also encouraged 

supervisors to really understand what CS is all about, and my 

NGASC colleagues are up to the challenge. 

Supervision is as much an art as a science, and the 

strength of the council is derived from its ability to leverage 

the great diversity brought to an issue by those willing to 

assist. We don’t suffer from a lack of interest; member 

drives are always successful. The motivation is high and the 

reasons for taking on more responsibility and committing up 

to 10 percent of their time to develop a supervisory culture 

are as varied as the offices in which the members work. 

Council member John Hangsleben, an HD instructor who 

joined the NGASC this year, said he felt privileged to work 

with NGA supervisors. 

 “As a former supervisor myself, I can relate to the issues 

and challenges they face and I want my students and all NGA 

supervisors to know they are not alone,” said Hangsleben. 

“Resources exist that can help them manage, grow and 

succeed in their assigned duties, and I am proud to make 

things better for my students.” 

Council member Brandie Schieb, from the Maritime 

Safety Office, offered a slightly different perspective. 

“I joined the NGASC because I believe development of 

supervisors is just as important as development of analysts,” 

Schieb said. “Supervisors have the power to make an 

average group outstanding if they know how to empower 

their people, have difficult and courageous conversations, 

and help them understand their role in achieving the greater 

mission.” 

Jodicus “Wayne” Prosser provides direct GEOINT 

support to military customers at Fort Hood, Texas. His 

council membership provided an avenue for him to 

represent external supervisors and express their concerns.

 “I recognized that personnel changes such as MissionTalent Alignment and Rank-in-Person were going to have 

significant impacts upon the external workforce that may 

not have been foreseen by senior leadership,” said Prosser.

 Mark Spivey, the NGASC Chair, said he joined NGASC 

because supervision is much more than the mechanics of 

timecards and PeopleSoft. 

“Supervisors play a critical leadership role in guiding, 

mentoring, motivating and developing employees, and 

they will continue to do so in the future,” said Spivey. 

“Employees must understand and embrace the new direction 

NGA is taking, and middle management is where employees 

always look for answers and direction. Transformation 

is personal — it happens at the individual level and 

supervisors must have the tools and network to help them 

convey the complete picture for each of their employees.” 

The NGASC has embraced servant leadership as its model 

toward serving the agency in general, and supervisors in 

specific. I’m proud to be part of an effort dedicated toward 

building a supervisory culture that will serve as the bedrock 

of stability across the agency during future periods of change. 

As the adage goes, the one thing that remains constant is 

change, and Deputy Director Gordon has charged supervisors 

to help the workforce navigate a major change. The NGASC 

is working to help the supervisors stay ahead of the curve. 

Tom Cooke is a retired military officer who now enjoys the abilit

to wear more than one type of suit to work as a civilian supervisor 

within NGA.

” 

Supervisors have 

the power to make 

an average group 

outstanding if they 

know how to empower 

their people.

“
| TELLING 

M

Minutia

Incremen

By James Friederich, Geomatics Office

Through the end of the Second World War, military 

operations were historically theater based. But with 

the advent of global mission profiles, the requirement 

for precise positioning, navigation and timing became 

essential. The advent of unmanned weapons, precisionpoint positioning and Global Navigation Satellite 

Systems established the importance of accurate geospatial 

intelligence, which became a dependency for shaping U.S. 

military doctrine.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s role in 

the defense and intelligence communities is predicated on 

providing the critical accuracy and precision that defines the 

geospatial location of events and features on the surface of the 

Earth. NGA also provides this same accuracy and precision to 

airborne and orbital platforms to enable and maximize their 

own intelligence gathering and navigation missions.

Over the course of 50-plus years, NGA geodesists, 

orbit analysts and geodetic surveyors in the Geomatics 

Office within the Source directorate have been global 

leaders in defining, refining and updating models of the 

Earth that provide the fundamental basis of accurate 

geospatial intelligence. It was once said that one of NGA’s 

predecessors, the Defense Mapping Agency, was the best 

keep secret in the Department of Defense. And today, 

perhaps the geomatics tradecraft is best keep secret within 

NGA. The foundational math and science of geomatics 

unpins all positioning, navigation and timing operations 

throughout the National System for Geospatial Intelligence. 

Geomatics is a relatively new term within NGA, but it is 

built upon traditional geodesy and cartography components, 

including work from the Greek mathematician Eratosthenes, 

studies on gravity by Carl Gauss, and modern mathematical 

applications of geodetic surveying and satellite orbital 

mechanics. 

The disjointed theater and regional based maps of the 

1940s were unsuited for the evolving post-World War II 

global missions. The DOD needed global maps and charts 

to support international positioning and navigation, and the 

existing regional geodetic systems could not provide an 

accurate worldwide basis.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and in 1960, the 

Army Map Service, an NGA legacy agency, began to 

develop the required worldwide system to unify geodetic 

and cartographic data and provide compatibility between 

the coordinates of widely separated areas of interest. The 

combined efforts of the Army, Navy and Air Force lead to 

the DOD’s World Geodetic System 1960, or WGS 60. 

The WGS is the standard for DOD use in mapping, 

charting, positioning and navigation. It comprises a standard 

coordinate system for the Earth, a standard ellipsoidal 

reference surface (the datum or reference ellipsoid) for the 

size and shape of the Earth, and a gravitational equipotential 

surface (the geoid) that defines the nominal mean sea level. 

Other factors driving the WGS development were the start 

of the space age for satellite tracking and earth monitoring 

and the advent of the Cold War. Preparedness necessitated 

a standardized, NATO-wide geodetic reference system in 

accordance with NATO standardization agreements. Not 

only does the WGS provide one geodetic framework for 

multinational operations, but it ties together ground-, airborneand space-based operations into a single geodetic framework.

Since 1960, there has been an increasing amount of earth 

observations, data gathering, refinements, and technology 

and technique improvements. Data from satellites and new 

surface gravity revealed better information about the size and 

shape of the Earth. Updates to the WGS were published in 

1966 and 1972. In 1987, the latest global geodetic reference 

frame, World Geodetic System 1984, was published and it is 

the current global geodetic system for DOD.

In the last 25 years, NGA geodesists have updated WGS 

84 several times to meet two important criteria — an increase 

in precise users’ accuracy requirements and maintaining 

alignment to the Earth, which is always changing.

“These updates include improvements to the Earth 

Gravitational Model, the World Magnetic Model and the 

reference coordinates for the WGS 84, which defines the 

center of the Earth,” said JN Markiel, Ph.D., a senior orbit 

scientist in the Geomatics Office. “Each of these changes 

introduces incremental improvements, sometimes only a few 

centimeters, but they are necessary to meet the increasingly 

stringent requirements for precise positioning and navigation 

and to maintain alignment with our dynamic planet.”

Refinements derived from NGA’s geodesists may seem 

like mathematical minutia or scientifically arcane to a 

layman, but this work is critical to understanding the world 

and integrating that scientific knowledge into intelligence 

gathering, positioning and navigation. 

James Friederich is a senior geosciences scientist in the Geomatics Office and is well positioned in the agency to deal with th

gravity of ensuring the accuracy in geospatial intelligence. 

Tell us your personal, unclassified version of the work

you or your office does for NGA for possible inclusion in 

the next Pathfinder. Send your 600 word or less account 

to Pathfinder@nga.mil. Submissions may be edited for 

clarity and length.

What’s your

Pathfinder | SUMM
20 Pathfinder | S

| COLLABO

Limited by low Internet bandwidth and 

cyber threats, U.S. sailors aboard even 

the most advanced aircraft carriers in 

the world often rely upon data, images 

and products that are produced and 

prepackaged elsewhere rather than 

benefiting from the same on-demand 

access to geospatial services enjoyed 

by anyone with a smartphone. 

“At sea, Navy geospatial 

intelligence operations take place in a 

communication-restricted environment. 

It’s not uncommon for shared and low 

bandwidth limitations to define our 

capacity to exploit imagery in support 

of our mission and our own safety of 

navigation,” said Petty Officer Matthew 

Jumper, stationed aboard the carrier 

USS Theodore Roosevelt. 

The very nature of the carrier 

environment — with its multiple 

operational priorities from daily flight 

operations to combat drills — makes 

employing new intelligence community 

technologies and techniques especially 

challenging. This reality drives 

the Navy’s requirement to balance 

enabling technologies and engineering 

with military planning standards and 

operations to accomplish its national 

security objectives.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency’s longstanding partnership 

with the Navy continues to provide 

GEOINT Gos

NGA’s Ship Rder 

with the

By Anne Helms and Marc Steiner, Military Support Directorate
Pathfinder | SUMM

| COLLABO

critical linkages between GEOINTrelated systems, products and 

processes. To that end, NGA Support 

Team members are embedded with 

fleet operations around the globe to 

help develop GEOINT solutions that 

address the Navy’s unique operational 

environment.

 “I’m a big fan with an obvious bias 

toward retaining, and even expanding, 

the current level of NGA support 

to the fleet,” said Navy Capt. Carl 

Inman, U.S. Fleet Forces Command. 

“In comparison to the other services, 

Navy use of GEOINT is still in the 

early stages, though it’s progressing. 

Until our enterprise is fully operational 

Photo by Rob Stiver

capable, I’m in favor of a greater level 

of on-site and federated support with 

the experts.” 

It was during a late 2014 visit to U.S. 

Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk, 

Virginia, that a conversation between 

Inman and John Scali, deputy director 

of NGA’s Military Support directorate, 

turned to the scope of technology, 

data and products needed shipboard 

versus those actually available in 

order to ensure the best support of 

military decision making. From that 

discussion emerged one of the most 

unprecedented partnerships to date 

between NGA and the Navy.

In the spring of 2015, NGA deployed 

veteran imagery analyst Rob Stiver 

aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt 

as the first of two “ship riders” in a 

pilot program. Stiver has provided 

dramatically improved access to 

geospatial resources, demonstrated 

how GEOINT can be applied to 

fleet operations for the duration of 

a Navy deployment, and captured 

lessons learned, which will become 

a model for use by other intelligence 

community partners.

“This collaborative effort with 

NGA is driving us forward to a 

Navy enterprise in which the right 

people, tools and processes are in 

place to address key intelligence and 

operational problem sets by thinking 

geospatially,” said Inman. “The insights 

we’re gaining make us smarter as far as 

aligning systems, data and training to 

meet mission requirements.” 

Scali said NGA’s embedded approach 

to GEOINT support has proven it can 

work just as effectively afloat as it does 

ashore in the Middle East, the Horn 

of Africa, or in any other deployed 

locations. 

“This effort differs from our standard 

model of positioning a regional 

GEOINT analyst at a single geographic 

location for expertise on a particular 

area or issue. Progressively, we’re 

seeing that by taking on a ‘train, coach 

and mentor’ stance, our efforts are 

informing more people and serve as 

a force multiplier for enduring postdeployment effects,” said Scali. “It’s 

my hope that this experiment will 

influence the Navy’s training programs 

to include greater emphasis on GEOINT 

in support of fleet operations.” 

After learning the realities of lowbandwidth communications aboard the 

ship, Stiver reached back to Military 

Support personnel at NGA and was 

remotely trained on a streaming 

Photo by U.S. Navy Public Affairs Office
22 Pathfinder | S

| COLLABO

U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jonathan Snyder

imagery service available through 

NGA’s OCONUS [Outside Continental 

United States] data center. Stiver was 

then able to use his training and instruct 

the Navy analysts on this new imagery 

access technique, which mitigated the 

bandwidth constricted environment 

typical on most ships. Using the 

service, the analysts aboard the USS 

Theodore Roosevelt are now able, for 

the first time, to stream imagery to their 

workstations in seconds versus waiting 

hours using alternative means. This 

capability alone has created immediate 

impact for the Navy customer by 

expediting intelligence operations. 

“This is probably the most 

challenging and rewarding experience 

of my NGA career,” said Stiver. “It’s 

incredibly satisfying to be able to give 

these sailors the proficiency to make 

better use of GEOINT at a tactical 

level; but on a larger scale, my being 

here gives the Navy a foundation to 

formulate new and improved tactics, 

techniques and procedures for the 

entire fleet.” 

While he is not the first NGA analyst 

to board a carrier, Stiver’s unique 

mission reflects a mounting awareness 

across U.S. and allied governments 

that the ability to counter primary 

security threats is deeply dependent 

on investment in key partnerships, 

intelligence and leading-edge 

technologies. 

“GEOINT is one of those force 

multipliers for the Navy. We are 

continually bringing these elements 

together, learning from each other 

shipside, and being reminded that our 

collective knowledge adds up to more 

than the sum of its parts,” said Stiver. 

“It’s pretty humbling to think about the 

importance of what we’re doing out 

here today, when you remember that 

only 500 years ago, people thought the 

Earth was flat. Without GEOINT, we 

still wouldn’t know the difference.” 
Pathfinder | SUMM

| FEA

The Transforming 

World of GEOINT

Persistence: How we get 

and convey geospatial 

intelligence

24 26 30 DNI Clapper on the 

Genesis of GEOINT

Enterprise Challenge

Demonstration reveals how

GEOINT tools and tradecraf

have transformed
24 Pathfinder | S

| f

Between the 5th and 4th centuries, many Greek tragedies 

employed the use of a mechanical crane, known as 

a “mechane,” to lift an actor into the air as a way of 

dramatically inserting a character into a scene. The character, 

often a deity making their first appearance in the third act, 

would use their omnipotence to resolve the play’s central 

conflict and bring about a hasty resolution. 

The use of the mechane became so commonplace in Greek 

theatre that the Latin term, “deus ex machina” — which 

translates to “god from the machine” — was used to describe 

the unexpected last minute godly intervention in the tragedies. 

The term “deus ex machine” has endured in popular culture, 

as modern-day storytellers mine the rapid advancements in 

technology — the mechane of the 21st century — and its 

relationship with the human mind for their art. 

This relationship between human and machine is central 

to the future of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. 

In a keynote address at the 2015 GEOINT Symposium last 

spring, NGA Director Robert Cardillo said that geospatial 

intelligence, or GEOINT, is at an “inflection point.” 

“In the next five years ... more than a dozen constellations, 

hundreds of [small satellites] will launch and continuously 

scan the earth,” Cardillo said. “It means our analysis of 

world events is going to be holistic and persistent.”

According to Cardillo, this proliferation of sensors forces 

intelligence agencies like NGA to pivot. 

“We have to change our mindset, to investigate multiple 

possibilities and better understand this complex situation. We 

won’t need to balance a finite collection capability against 

a seemingly infinite set of GEOINT requirements. And 

I’m betting on our people — those brains — because their 

expertise is our ultimate value proposition.” 

Holistic and persistent GEOINT analysis has been at the 

forefront of Jennifer Daniel’s brain for the better part of 

18 months. 

“How do we create coherence from chaos?” asked Daniel, 

the director of NGA’s Persistent GEOINT Office, a month 

after Cardillo’s speech. 

“How do we take all this stuff that is out there now and 

that’s going to be out there in the future, maximize its 

capabilities, understand what it tells us, and connect the 

dots? How do we get answers faster so we can provide that 

The Trnsform

Persistence: How we

geospati

By Paul Frommelt, Office of Corporate Communications
Pathfinder | SUMM

| FEA

information advantage to our customers who can then use it 

to deliver consequence and succeed in their mission?” 

These are questions that Daniel and her 30-person team 

have been working on since her office stood up in May 2014 

at the request of former director Letitia Long. 

“This is not about transforming one part of our enterprise, 

it is not transforming one part of NGA, or one part of the 

NSG [National System for Geospatial Intelligence], it is 

about transforming the environment of how we get GEOINT 

and how we convey GEOINT,” said Daniel. 

The first part of that transformation is clarifying, once and 

for all, what persistent GEOINT means.

“One understanding, one vision,” said Daniel. 

So what is persistent GEOINT? According to Daniel, the 

best way to answer that question is to first dispel a common 

misconception. 

“Some people have the impression that persistent GEOINT 

as being about a ‘dwell’ capability, like what we get from 

full-motion video ... where you can dwell over an area on 

the ground for a period of time and track activity and look at 

activity,” she said. “That is one part of persistence, but it’s 

not the only part of persistent GEOINT.”

The official definition of persistent GEOINT, as developed 

by Daniel and her team, is: “a focused intelligence strategy 

to obtain geospatial content with sufficient periodicity 

and duration to detect change, characterize activity, infer 

behavior, and discover unknowns — where the rate of 

information refresh equals or exceeds the rate of change.”

Simply, according to the team, persistent GEOINT is not 

about sensors or automation or processing or models, it’s 

about the synthesis of all of these things to accelerate data 

to answers. 

According to Sherry Prewitt, defining persistence can be 

difficult because the term is so malleable. 

“Persistence is based on your target or your issue,” said 

Prewitt, who runs the Frontiers division of NGA’s Office 

of Geospatial Intelligence Management and is tasked 

with looking holistically across the GEOINT missions to 

understand and address future analytic needs. 

Daniel and her team are interested in maximizing the 

capability of any and all sources of information, from 

federal, commercial and international satellites, to airborne, 

terrestrial, subsurface and open source. 

And once you have access to all that data, how do you sort 

through it, organize it and tell the analyst what is important? 

Enter automation. 

“Machines assisting humans,” said Daniel. “It’s not 

machines taking the place of humans. Let machines do what 

they’re good at and let humans do what they are good at.”

And when we say “machine,” we are focusing on the 

software and coding, rather than the hardware, said Prewitt. 

“Hardware is easy,” she said. “Software and code is much 

more difficult. There are thousands and thousands of lines of 

code that need to be written.” 

According to Daniel, automation works in a number of 

ways, from connecting the data, organizing objects, tipping 

and cueing, and predicting outcomes. 

“It’s four times faster for a human to get to the answer by 

using the assistance from the machine, than it is by having a 

number of people do that same function without a machine 

by searching through the images,” said Daniel. 

“We have examples of automation connecting the dots 

and discovering things that humans looking at that same set 

of data were not able to discover. Getting to persistence is 

taking these types of capabilities and building them, making 

them more accurate and stronger, and continuing to build 

them across the enterprise.”

According to Prewitt, automation is key for NGA to fully 

leverage the amount of information — imagery and data — 

that is being ingested. 

“For us to fully leverage the capabilities that you would 

get from small satellite companies, for us to fully leverage all 

of our overhead capabilities, from a timeliness perspective, 

we have to have automation,” she said. “I’m talking about 

being able to process all of that information in a quick 

manner, being able to react to that processed information 

from a machine perspective. That doesn’t mean that you have 

to have eyes on every bit of information.”

For now, the persistent GEOINT environment of the future 

remains, well, in the future. 

Daniel and her team, and NGA as a whole, are currently 

laying the foundation for that environment, which includes 

focusing on building up the agency’s initiatives in GEOINT 

Services, Next-Gen Collection, and advanced analytic 

techniques, and reaching out to industry, academia and 

government partners. 

“All of these are building that foundation that we can 

leverage to get into the future,” said Daniel. “We have a 

number of prototypes at NGA as well as in the community 

that are working on using machines to detect activity, to 

detect changes, to pull data together. Many of these are in 

the prototype environment, many of these are at the very 

beginning stages. We need to continue to push forward and 

build on them to get to where we need to be in the future.”

Pushing an entire intelligence discipline into the future is 

not easy work. Nor is it instantaneous. There is no “deus ex 

machina” in the third act. 

“Getting to a persistent GEOINT environment is not a 

big bang,” Daniel said. “You are not going to get there 

overnight and turn a switch and all of a sudden you are going 

to be there. We have to purposefully take what we are doing 

now and build to the future.” 
26 Pathfinder | S

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Pathfinder | SUMM

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ENTERPRISE CHALLENGE

Demonstration reveals how GEOINT tools and tradecra

have transformed

Anyone who 

has seen the 

1986 movie 

“Heartbreak Ridge” 

understands how essential 

integration and interoperability 

are to survival. 

At the height of the action, the 

Marine sergeant played by Clint 

Eastwood struggles alongside his men, 

as different branches of the military 

fail to collaborate to rescue them. The 

irony that the platoon is saved by using a 

commercial source — a credit card to phone 

home — is not lost on National GeospatialIntelligence Agency employees. One of NGA’s 

new strategic goals is to leverage commercial 

sources as much as possible.

“At the time [the movie was made], troops on the 

ground only had interpersonal radios for communication 

... Yet they could connect with basically anyone, anywhere, 

at any time, if they could get to the commercial telephone 

service,” said D.K. Stewart, who came to NGA after retiring 

from supporting Air Force special operations. 

Stewart believes the movie serves as an analogy for the 

importance of standards — for both technology and behavior.

“The reason that commercial services work is because of 

the standards,” he said. “They have to be interoperable. They 

don’t do well if they exclude customers.”

Fans of “Heartbreak Ridge” know that the film was based 

on an event that occurred in Grenada in 1983. Knowledge 

of the situation influenced introduction of the GoldwaterNichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986, 

which formally established the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the 

combatant commands NGA supports today.

The tipping point

Notwithstanding reforms brought 

about by Goldwater-Nichols, the sharing of geospatial 

intelligence remained difficult. Just how much 

so came to light during the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11.

“There were a lot of issues with getting GEOINT into the 

hands of policy makers so they could make decisions,” said 

John Sherman, who was the White House Situation Room 

duty officer on 9/11. 

According to Sherman, GEOINT capabilities were 

unconnected at the time. At one point, he collaborated with his 

peers by holding different telephone handsets to each of his 

ears — one connected to a representative of the Air Force and 

the other to one of New York Mayor Rudy Giulliani’s aides.

“Everything required a lot of manual work back then,” he 

said. “We would print out a map from a website, and cut and 

paste information from emails. It was all very time and labor 

intensive.”

The types of information Sherman and his counterparts 

used in 2001 are now increasingly available through shared 

platforms and databases. 

“The wartime scenario we went into after 9/11 forced a lot 

of integration,” he said. “The customer didn’t have time to 

go to different places to get information.”

Personnel in combat zones in Afghanistan and Iraq became 

the biggest innovation drivers.

“Tools and expertise began changing quickly, not just 

because warfighters didn’t have time to be information 

integrators, but also because they were becoming savvier,” 

Sherman said. “They had started to understand the power 

that GEOINT brought them.”

Evolution of tools and tradecraft

The military services and many DOD agencies share 

information today through a common desktop environment 

known as the Joint Information Environment, or JIE. 

Within the intelligence community, a growing number of 

employees use the Intelligence Community Information 

Technology Enterprise, or IC ITE, and NATO allies have 

a separate network. DOD and IC entities, including NGA, 

are developing the Defense Intelligence Information 

Enterprise, commonly known as DI2E, to integrate crossdomain intelligence from these various venues for reliable 

battlespace awareness. 

Developing the DI2E is central to the Enterprise Challenge, 

an annual event to test the interoperability of data-sharing 

technologies across the DOD enterprise. (Prior to 2012, the 

EC was known as the Empire Challenge.) The EC engages 

every branch of the U.S. military, key combatant commands 

and several U.S. allied nations in demonstrating state-ofthe art GEOINT capabilities. This year, large-scale testing 

occurred in NGA’s InnoVision Laboratory Environment as 

well as at more than 15 additional sites across the United 

States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.

By Jeanne Chircop, NGA Office of Corporate Communications
28 Pathfinder | S

| FEA

The underlying purpose for the EC is to ensure that 

U.S. and allied warfighters, and the decision makers who 

direct them, have the capabilities for understanding where 

adversaries are and what they are doing — at all times and in 

real time. They need to be certain of the location of mission 

partners, to know exactly where civilians are and to know 

targeting data is reliable. Geospatial intelligence provides the 

foundation for this.

NGA leads and executes the event each year.

“When you commit forces somewhere, you have to do 

everything you can to ensure that they’re safe,” said retired 

Navy Cmdr. Joseph Smith, who has been involved with the 

EC since its inception. “That means making sure their data 

systems work as they should.”

Ronnie Stanfill, NGA’s manager for EC-15 held earlier 

this year, agreed. Stanfill is a retired Air Force fighter pilot 

and former squadron commander who has a long history 

with the EC. 

“It is critical that warfighters have confidence that the 

information they have is accurate and complete, especially for 

targeting purposes,” he said. Most important, said Stanfill, is to 

nurture a culture of information sharing. 

“Once we started understanding that there was a family 

of systems, that’s when we began to think about how they 

needed to be connected — for instance, how the full-motion 

video used by the Air Force would be more useful if it 

combined analysis from the Army, and so forth,” he said.

Tracking the evolution of the EC culture shows how 

GEOINT tools and tradecraft have transformed over time.

“We’ve gone from compliance to conformance, and are 

now moving toward true compatibility,” Stanfill said. 

The continuum started with stove-piped systems, 

according to Mark Mogle, a former Air Force imagery 

analyst and NGA contractor who has been involved with 

the EC for more than a decade. In stove-piped systems, 

data were shared by way of email from analyst to analyst. 

Outside the classified environment, data were often shared 

by exchanging computer diskettes, 

said Smith.

The advent of metadata tagging enabled true data sharing, 

and the integration of tagged services soon followed. 

The DI2E framework will allow all mission partners — 

including international allies — to ingest data into whichever 

platform and security level they normally use for mission 

accomplishment. 

A milestone on the road to integration came when the 

community began to view GEOINT as a service, said Dave 

Cacner, one of NGA’s GEOINT IT experts. In the past, 

many data types required a unique repository dependent on 

a specific software application in order to be viewed and 

used. Separating datasets from applications enabled the data 

to be consumed independently, grouped or combined with 

intelligence or operational information, he said. 

GEOINT applications have also evolved from stand-alone 

systems to more agile, customizable services that can be 

shared and even used on mobile platforms.

Royal Air Force Maj. Andy Mangan, the United 

Kingdom’s representative to this year’s EC, cited the sharing 

of common services as a top outcome of international 

collaboration to date.

“The NATO Top 10 apps — and really understanding 

what they can do — are proven benefits of the Enterprise 

Challenge,” Mangan said.

Cacner explained that the GEOINT data architecture is 

also being overhauled. Originally designed on a World War 

II-based tasking, processing, exploitation and dissemination 

model, the architecture is too linear to keep up with the volume and pace of today’s data.

“GEOINT data continues to grow substantially, and it’s no 

longer enough to push data to multiple global locations. We 

need to enable rapid data access, discovery and visualization 

over common networks that minimize bandwidth 

dependencies for information flow,” Cacner said. 

Moving forward, Mangan said that building the proper 

DI2E architecture is critical.

“We’ve got to get things right at the outset,” he said, 

because the architecture is the foundation upon which all 

GEOINT will be shared by allied military forces.

EC-15

Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sensors are at 

the center of both GEOINT and the EC. Modern ISR sensors 

have transformed over time to handle increased collection 

(i.e., big data), larger file sizes (i.e., large data) and new types 

of data (e.g., LIDAR, hyperspectral), according to Cacner. 

Interoperability of ISR sensor data among FVEY partners 

is a major focus of the EC. The “Five Eyes,” commonly 

abbreviated as FVEY, denote an intelligence alliance 

comprising the United States, Australia, Canada, New 

Zealand and the United Kingdom.

“After all, when we fight a war, we do it as a coalition,” 

said Mogle.

FVEY partners view the EC as beneficial for reasons 

other than straight technology interoperability. Mangan cited 

sharing lessons learned. Air Force Maj. Jamie Miller, the 

Canadian representative to EC-15, cited cost-effectiveness, 

as duplicative services are avoided and partner technologies 

are leveraged.

Among services now shared by FVEY partners are those 

that connect reporting with video imagery and video imagery 

with maps. The same technologies connect GEOINT to 

other intelligences — to signal intelligence and human 

intelligence, for instance.

“We need to be wider than just GEOINT in order to provide 

high-fidelity intelligence to the warfighter,” said Miller.
| FEA

Team GEOINT

Before technologies and data can integrate, the transformative work of 

creating standards and policies is distinctly human. 

Representatives from throughout the DOD, IC and close allied nati

manage standards and governance through various National System 

for Geospatial Intelligence forums. The NSG, of which NGA is a member,

constitutes the core of what NGA Director Robert Cardillo calls “Te

GEOINT

The NSG consists of more than 30 national members and the four

nations with which the United States shares a multilateral agreement

for intelligence cooperation — United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealan

and Australia, which together form the Allied System for Geospatial 

Intelligence. In addition to the NSG and ASG, several organizations 

participate in the GEOINT community as NSG partners, including member

of industry and academia, professional organizations and foreign nations 

with which the United States has bilateral agreements

Director Cardillo leads the NSG as the GEOINT functional manager, a d

separate and distinct from management of NGA.

“A lot of people confuse mission management and functional 

management,” said Charlie Schilling, deputy chief of the NSG Capabilitie

and Integration office within NGA’s Office of Geospatial Intelligence

Management. “Mission management is the tactical, day-to-day work; 

functional management is the strategic, planning work.”

The use of universally accepted and agreed-upon standards ensures

that NSG system components do what they are required to do and are 

integrated in ways that allow GEOINT to be exchanged between them

according to Jeff Bell, GEOINT standards expert who represents NG

in several NSG and GEOINT enterprise-wide standards working groups

including the Open Geospatial Consortium and the Defense Geospati

Information Standards Working Group. Standards also ensure that GEO

data are in forms that can be understood by varied systems and users.

In June 2015, the NSG issued a directive on standards assessment, 

according to Mary Willmon, a member of the NSG policy team. Th

directive established a formal assessment program for standards 

pertaining to IT, GEOINT data and services, and interoperabili

The process is far from easy, said Angel Douglas, who focuses on th

international aspects of the task. For example, she said metadata tagging

is complex because nations work within different security domains, use 

different terminology and follow different technical standards.

Ronnie Stanfill, manager of Enterprise Challenge 15, said EC participant

discovered several years ago that 80 percent of the GEOINT system

tested were compliant with standards, but only 20 percent of them were 

interoperable. The reason, he said, was that the standards themselves

were incompatible. 

The discovery prompted Thomas Ferguson, then-principal depu

undersecretary of defense for intelligence, to issue a memorandum 

in 2011 stipulating that full program funding for systems depends on 

verification of compliance with NSG GEOINT data standard

But the real incentive to comply, according to Willmon, is that “people

understand that they won’t be interoperable without them. They’ll be left

out.” 

Humanitarian aid and public safety

Interoperability is about more than battlespace preparation. 

Integrated content and services are also critical for 

humanitarian assistance and safety of navigation. 

U.S. agencies team with international partners for disaster 

relief and rescue efforts. Examples include assistance 

following the 2010 hurricane in Haiti, the 2013 typhoon in 

the Philippines and the earthquake in Nepal in April 2015. 

International coalitions have fought Ebola outbreaks in West 

Africa and monitored previous pandemic threats, such as the 

spread of bird flu in Asia.

NGA’s Map of the World has proved itself a useful tool 

for humanitarian assistance, said Stanfill. The tool provides 

content that enables first responders to identify safest access 

to hospitals and best supply and evacuation routes. During 

EC-15, NGA technologists demonstrated how mission 

partners layer street maps with overlays of airfields and 

warehouses, and then add human geography data and even 

crowdsourced details.

“We can add intel straight from folks in the field to update 

actual conditions,” said Dave Currence, an NGA analyst who 

led one of the MoW demonstrations.

Overcoming challenges

While the thrust of EC-15 is interoperability, an equally 

critical task is to develop access control mechanisms that 

protect sensitive data while making content available to 

mission partners who need it. Identity and management tools 

control who can use resources – an authentication process 

– and what resources they can use and in what ways – an 

authorization function.

“Cross-domain is a big issue for working with 

international partners,” said John Snevely, an EC-15 

presenter representing the Undersecretary of Defense for 

Intelligence.

None of the solutions demonstrated through the EC will 

succeed without standards and compliance, said Stanfill. He 

believes NGA is positioned to assist. 

“As the GEOINT functional manager, NGA’s director, 

Robert Cardillo, can work with members of the NSG 

[National System for Geospatial Intelligence] and ASG [Allied 

System for Geospatial Intelligence] to encourage standards 

compliance,” Stanfill said. (See “Team GEOINT” sidebar.)

Stanfill also said that under Cardillo’s leadership, NGA is 

starting to change the mindset of the GEOINT community. 

He believes this new thinking will drive the tradecraft into 

the future.

“When community members realize ‘I am no longer a 

specialized analyst, I am a member of the GEOINT team,’ 

that will carry us to true fusion,” Stanfill said. 

Pathfinder | SUMM
30 Pathfinder | S

| FEA

September 11, 2001

8:46 a.m. – Hijackers aboard American 

Airlines Flight 11 crash the plane into 

floors 93-99 of the North Tower of the 

World Trade Center in New York City.

9:03 a.m. – Hijackers aboard United 

Airlines Flight 175 crash the plane into 

the World Trade Center’s South Tower.

9:37 a.m. – Hijackers aboard American 

Airlines Flight 77 crash the plane into 

the western façade of the Pentagon in 

Washington, D.C.

By Regina Galvin, Office of Corporate Communications

TheGENESISof

GEOINT

10:07 a.m. – Hijackers aboard 

United Airlines Flight 93 crash the 

plane into a field in Somerset County, 

Pennsylvania.

September 13, 2001

Without ceremony or fanfare, 

overshadowed by the terrorist attacks 

two days before, retired Air Force 

Lt. Gen. James Clapper became the 

director of the National Imagery and 

Mapping Agency. While the catalyst 

for organizational change had already 

been established with the findings of the 

Report of the Independent Commission 

of the National Imagery and Mapping 

Agency in early 2000, in the months 

and years that followed, Clapper led 

the transformation and established 

the National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency. No reflection on the 

transformation of GEOINT would be 

complete without the perspective of the 

man who coined the term and shaped 

the future of geospatial intelligence. 

Photo by Senior Airman Christopher S. Muncy
Pathfinder | SUMM

| FEA

With the hindsight of nine years, in 

his office in McLean, Virginia, now 

Director of National Intelligence 

Clapper reflected on the events 

irrevocably impacted by 9/11. In his 

own words: 

I

took over two days after 9/11. I think 

the entire IC was under pressure. Not 

to the extent that say, CIA [was], but 

nevertheless I recall that Afghanistan 

was not exactly on our top 10 hit 

parade for foundation data — so we 

were behind the power curve. 

We were really scuffling to do what 

we now call GEOINT products for 

Afghanistan. And [we] bought up every 

bit of commercial imagery that we 

could. We were really [hustling] there 

for about 90 days. I think it was around 

the first of the year 2002, I took the 

top 40 or so leaders of [NIMA] and we 

went down to Camp Peary for an offsite. 

The question I posed was, “Do you 

think we’ve been singing Amazing 

Grace at the wake of NPIC [National 

Photographic Interpretation Center] 

and DMA [Defense Mapping Agency] 

long enough?” 

We saw the advantages, on an 

anecdotal basis, of the melding of 

mapping, charting, geodesy on one 

hand and imagery analysis on the other 

and melding them into a single product. 

There’d been some work done on a pilot 

program in the analysis area on doing 

that, which showed great promise. 

So everybody bought into it. And I 

said if that’s the case, it’s GEOINT and 

we’ve got to change the name of the 

agency. All of that was hatched in that 

offsite, I think about Jan. 2002, after 

the hectic, high-pressure time there of 

the last few months of 2001. 

Everyone saw the merit of [the 

transformation]. When I came to NIMA, 

I had in hand the NIMA Commission 

Report, which really laid out the 

original intent of the founding fathers 

and mothers when NIMA was created. 

[NIMA] never really lived up to that 

because the first five years of existence, 

it was simply DMA and NPIC under 

one tent but they were separate. Even 

in the production organization, they 

were separate. The NIMA commission 

critique was that NIMA had not lived up 

to its intended expectation. 

So that’s what I walked in with — 

that’s what needed to happen — so we 

pushed. I left almost five years later, 

and GEOINT pretty much gelled. It’s 

certainly matured since then, but that’s 

how it got started.
32 Pathfinder | S

| SHOW THE

Photo by Rob Cox

Nationa
Pathfinder | SUMM

| SHOW THE

“What separate

us from t

animals, w

separates u

from the cha

is our ability

mourn pe

we’ve ne

met.” 

– Author 

Le

book 

is t

Law
34 Pathfinder | S

| KNOW THE 

One u

A Map of World War I Europe by th

U.S. Army General Staff, 191

By Gary E. Weir, Ph.D., NGA Historian

KNOW THE EARTH: The last issue’s back cover featured a map prepared by the War College 

Division of the U.S. Army General Staff. Read on to learn the historical context of the map’s use.

Today, this map of Europe only appears in textbooks or historical archives. Many of 

the countries and empires represented no longer exist, perishing in one the most violent 

and destructive conflicts in human history. 

After the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, June 

28, 1914, the U.S. Army authorized a geospatial rendition of a likely European 

war, which provided the most fundamental data on the military potential on the 

battlefield and at sea, of each of the participants. As a result of the terrorist act 

against the Austro-Hungarian throne, the United States needed to prepare itself for 

the possibility of the outbreak of war within Europe among 

the two primary alliances. This map displays the political 

boundaries of Europe in 1914 as well as the continental 

river system. In addition, the data provided on the map 

answered some fundamental questions about each country 

for the Army planners. The general population as well as the 

peacetime strength of the professional army appeared at the 

top of the data list for each country. For example, France 

had an army of 727,000. The French navy accounted for 

876,135 tons of warships, while the dominant British Royal 

Navy accounted for over 1.2 million tons. By comparison 

to a relatively small army in the United Kingdom, the 

French could count on 3.88 million trained men who would 

respond to a call for army mobilization, increasing the 

standing army numbers to 5.5 million trained and untrained 

men. While this is impressive, we need to remember that the 

effects of trench warfare and sophisticated weaponry over 

the course of four years would cost the French one-third of 

their male population. 

With a population of 125.64 million and 1.2 million under 

arms in peacetime, many European military leaders treated 

Russia as the greatest threat in a possible war. Trained and 

untrained, the Russian army could place a force in the field 

that the U.S. Army could only guess. The mobilization of 

the Russian army by the Tsar actually led Germany to 

initiate its own mobilization in 1914. The Germans felt the 

need to knock out France before turning to meet the huge 

army of Tsar Nicholas II. The Russians, even though they 

were ill-equipped and ill-trained, could field more than 

Germany, who could call upon over 4 million fighters after 

a general mobilization and a trained and untrained total of 

roughly 7 million.
Pathfinder | SUMM

| KNOW THE 

Answer: The woman who influenced Iraqi boundaries was Gertrude Bell. She was the first woman to graduate with a degr

history from Oxford University. She brought her expertise in near eastern history, language and culture into British army intelligenc

in the early years of 

World

War I. A colleague of T.E. Lawrence, later Lawrence of Arabia, Bell found work as a highly valued, resid

regional expert during and after the conflict.

kNOW THE

eART

The imperial ambitions of the Europeans also brought resources from far-off 

lands into play. The British supplemented their forces with components of their 

Indian army and the French drafted natives from their colonies as soldiers. This 

was truly a world war.

If nothing else, this map provides a strong depiction of just how dramatically 

World War I changed the political configuration of Europe, and illustrates the 

scope and potential horror of the impending conflict as seen by the United States 

in 1914.
h

yo

Ea

An increasingly 

influential figure in 

the British regional 

administration after 

World War I wrote this 

to her father: "I had a 

well-spent morning at 

the office making out 

the southern desert 

frontier of the Iraq." 

She had a great deal of 

latitude and a profound 

effect on the shape of 

the new Iraq, which is 

still remembered by 

many in the region. 

This map shows Iraqi 

boundaries determined 

in large part by her. 

Who is she? 

W

d

of I

Answer: pg. 35