N o v e m b e r / D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 0

Vol. 8 No. 6

N o v e m b e r / D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 0

GLOBAL GEOINT ENTERPRISE
On My Mind

Collaboration at Home and Abroad:

The GEOINT Advantage 

Close working relationships with our national and international partners are fundamental 

to NGA’s success. As the leader in GEOINT, NGA understands that intelligence is strengthened 

by incorporating many perspectives and points of view. We have stepped forward to collaborate with partners from the Intelligence Community, the Department of Defense, industry, 

the international arena and academia. Our shared opportunity lies in working together on 

technology, policies, capabilities, doctrine, activities, people and communities to produce 

GEOINT in an integrated, multi-intelligence, multi-domain environment. GEOINT is bigger 

than any one agency.

The array of resources, training, experience and insight that our partners bring to the table 

benefits us all. Working with our national and international partners ensures a more diverse 

understanding of our intelligence challenges and leads to greater mission effectiveness. For 

example, Unified GEOINT Operations allow for coordinated analysis and production efforts 

between NGA and our partners. We have seen great progress in operating as a more integrated 

team to advance a common mission. 

Collaboration also enables us to identify redundancies and improve our collective operations. We are being called upon to be more efficient and to eliminate duplication of effort. 

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has asked all Defense Department agencies to find ways 

to redirect resources from overhead and support functions to critical mission areas so that 

we can continue to provide what the warfighter needs today and in the future. The Director of 

National Intelligence has the same perspective. In this context, collaboration, communication 

and information sharing drive real results.

In this issue of the Pathfinder, you will see how, at the national level, NGA partners with the 

Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Geospatial Intelligence Unit to enhance the bureau’s GEOINT 

capability through training and product development. We also highlight our collaboration at 

the international level with Thailand, a country that experiences flooding and other natural 

disasters on a regular basis. We are working with our Thai counterparts to train and develop 

their GEOINT analysts and capabilities to help them save lives and alleviate suffering. And 

we have a history of providing GEOINT support to our other international partners in times 

of crisis within their borders and of joining with them, as we did in Haiti and Chile after the 

earthquakes in those countries. More and more, these types of situations require that we work 

in open environments to share our information, data and products with many new partners.

By sharing data and information, and the use of interoperable technology, tradecraft and 

methodologies, our domestic and global partners help deliver the GEOINT advantage in 

response to security challenges, natural and man-made disasters and special security events. 

Together we are building a strong global community of GEOINT professionals.

Letitia A. Long

Director
Pathfinder ›› November/December 2010 ›› Vol. 8 No. 6

3 Pathfinder ›› November/December 2010 

12

On the Cover

The amount of geospatial intelligence produced and 

consumed in the United States and across the world rises 

every year. As the demand for GEOINT increases, so does 

the necessity that the federal, industrial, academic and 

international partners producing it come together to share 

data, resources and best practices. GEOINT has become a 

global enterprise, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency actively pursues worldwide partnerships, 

collaboration, coproduction and unified GEOINT operations 

to meet its mission. Cover design by Kipling Williams. 

Published by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Office of Corporate Communications

4600 Sangamore Road, Mail Stop D-54

Bethesda, MD 20816-5003

Telephone: (301) 227-9123

DSN 287-9123

E-mail: pathfinder@nga.mil

Director

Letitia A. Long

Deputy Director

Lloyd Rowland

Office of Corporate Communications, Director

Kimberly Thompson

Public Affairs, Chief

Karen A. Finn

Editor

Marshall Hudson

Associate Editor

Laura L. Lundin

Graphic Artist

Ronald Kee

The Pathfinder is the National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency publication that promotes public awareness and understanding of geospatial intelligence. The Pathfinder is an 

authorized Department of Defense publication for members 

of the Department of Defense. Contents of this publication 

are not necessarily the official view of, or endorsed by, the 

U.S. government, Department of Defense 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 Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency, the Pathfinder magazine.” Any reproduction of 

graphics, photographs and imagery is subject to the original 

copyright.

2 On My Mind

4 NGA in the News

›› F E A T U R E S

6 Guest Column: Commercial Imagery Promotes 

International Cooperation

8 UGO Principles Underlie NSG Functional Management

10 NSG Extends GEOINT Reach to Unclassified 

Communities 

12 Thai Cooperation Enhances Disaster Relief 

14 Improving Geospatial Data for Humanitarian 

Support

16 Canada Responds to Haiti Earthquake

17 Another Pathfinder Propels U.K.’s GEOINT

Fusion Centre

›› D E P A R T M E N T S

18 Partnerships: Mentors Nurture 

Afghan Mapping Agency

20 Partnerships: FBI Cultivates GEOINT

Capability 

22 Partnerships: Agency Lays the Foundation of 

Enterprise Architecture for Future U.S. Korea 

Command

23 Guest Column: Successive Directors Shape NSG

Contents

Thinkstock photo
4 Pathfinder ›› November/December 2010 

DOD photo

» The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has 

inaugurated the Airlift Support Initiative to provide for 

the movement of NGA personnel and resources within 

Afghanistan and to provide support to other Intelligence 

Community organizations. This service provides techni-

cal and logistical support for more than 30 locations.

In its first weeks of flight operations, which began on 

Sept. 22, the service moved hundreds of NGA and IC 

deployed personnel and tens of thousand of pounds of 

cargo to multiple sites. Military transportation options 

had become problematic within Afghanistan due to in-

creased movement of military personnel and resources, 

causing an impact on daily NGA operations.

The agency has received numerous letters of apprecia-

tion for the service. Travel and transportation related to 

technical and analytical support that used to take many 

days, including downtime, now takes only hours.

Afghanistan Airlift

Support Inaugurated
3 Pathfinder ›› July/August 2010 

NGA IN THE NEWS

Secretary Gates Announces Next NGA Director

On Feb. 22, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates announced that 

Letitia Long will serve as the next director of the National GeospatialIntelligence Agency. Long currently serves as deputy director of the 

Defense Intelligence Agency. 

“Her more than 30 years of engineering and intelligence experience 

include service as the deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence, 

deputy 

director of naval intelligence and as a coordinator of Intelligence Community activities for the director of central intelligence,” Gates said.

Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair stated, “Ms. Long’s 

historic appointment reflects her 32 years of exceptional government 

service, including more than two decades in the Intelligence Community. She is highly respected throughout the Intelligence Community and 

Department of Defense.”

Long will be the first woman to lead a major intelligence agency when 

she 

assumes her new post later this summer.

DIA Director Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess announced on April 19 that Robert 

Cardillo, who currently serves as the DIA deputy director for analysis, 

will become the new deputy director of DIA when Long assumes her 

post at NGA. Previously, Cardillo served as director of NGA’s Analysis 

and Production 

Directorate and Source Operations and Management Directorate.

Blair announced on April 21 that current NGA Director Vice Adm. Robert 

B. 

Murrett will take over as the ODNI director of intelligence staff later this 

year following the retirement of Lt. Gen. John F. (“Jeff”) Kimmons.

Extended Learning Site Opens in Tampa, Fla.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence College formally opened its 

first Extended Learning Site at MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa, Fla., 

with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on March 24. The MacDill site is 

part of the agency’s continuing drive to push GEOINT resources forward throughout the National System for Geospatial Intelligence.

The MacDill site will provide tradecraft and leadership training to 

NGA employees and other NSG members in the region. Personnel 

from many commands and agencies who attend training at the 

site will learn to apply GEOINT more effectively to make decisions 

critical to mission success. Additional sites are projected for other 

civilian and military locations in the near future.

5 Pathfinder ›› November/December 2010 

Director Announces New Key

Appointments 

On Sept. 24, NGA Director Letitia A. Long announced that Lisa Spuria had been selected to 

serve as NGA’s Chief Operating Officer. Spuria 

replaced Richard Fravel, who departed NGA for an 

assignment as the Assistant Director of National 

Intelligence for Policy, Plans and Requirements.

Spuria served most recently as the deputy director of NGA’s Analysis and Production Directorate. 

She has more than 25 years of experience as an 

Intelligence Community officer, beginning her 

career as an imagery analyst with the Central 

Intelligence Agency in 1982.

On Sept. 30, the director also announced the establishment of the senior 

advisor for strategic outcomes and named Regina Genton to the position.

Genton most recently served as the Senior Advisor for Strategic Initiateives 

to the CIA Director for Science and Technology and as the Assistant Deputy 

Director for National Intelligence, or ADDNI, for Policy where she led Intelligence Community policy design and development on behalf of the Director 

of National Intelligence. 

Agency Awards EnhancedView 

Commercial Imagery Contract 

On Aug. 6, NGA competitively awarded contracts for 

the EnhancedView commercial imagery program. 

DigitalGlobe Inc., of Longmont, Colo., received an 

award for $3.5 billion and GeoEye Imagery Collection Systems of Dulles, Va., an award for $3.8 billion. The period for performance of the contracts is 

10 years if all options are exercised.

These contracts will provide products and services 

to help meet the increasing geospatial intelligence 

needs of the Intelligence Community and Department of Defense. 

EnhancedView also provides more imagery, 

greater access, priority tasking and improved 

capability and capacity to government customers from the next series of U.S. 

commercial imagery satellites.

NGA photo

Photo Illustration Courtesy

of Lockheed Martin

Artist conception of GeoEye-2 which is currently being 

built to support the EnhancedView program.

NGA Signs 

CRADA With 

Overwatch

Lisa Spuria

NGA IN THE NEWS

The National Geospatial-Intelligence 

Agency and Overwatch of Texas, an 

operating unit of Textron Systems, 

have signed a five-year Cooperative 

Research and Development Agreement to further develop and enhance 

current Overwatch geospatial software 

products, such as RemoteView Professional, Feature Analyst, LIDAR Analyst, 

Mensuration, RemoteView Video 

Tracking, RemoteView 3D Professional, 

GeoCatalog and RemoteView Connect. 

The CRADA will also initiate development and integration of new products 

and capabilities to better exploit 

geospatial intelligence data.

Results of the CRADA will be shared 

with the National System for Geospatial 

Intelligence, and NGA has the option 

of demonstrating new products to 

selected working groups and technology forums.

“This is an exciting opportunity for 

Overwatch and NGA, with focused 

attention on increased workflow efficiency and creating new avenues for 

solving intelligence issues,” said Stuart 

Blundell , Overwatch Vice President of 

Geospatial Products and Solutions. 

“This is a great example of industry 

and government working together to 

provide advanced tools for GEOINT 

professionals,” he said.
6Pathfinder ›› November/December 2010 

Guest Column

Commercial Imagery Promotes International 

Cooperation

By Dawn Eilenberger

Rapid access to unclassified imagery to 

support disaster response allows the National 

Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to provide planners 

and coordinators with comprehensive situational 

awareness when they need it the most.

Commercial imagery plays a key role in these 

events because it allows governments to freely 

share data that might otherwise have been classified. This year alone, NGA has responded to several 

disasters, including the Haiti earthquake and the 

Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The NextView contract gives NGA constellationlike access to DigitalGlobe’s and GeoEye’s five 

high-resolution electro-optical commercial satellites. Combined with NGA’s access to French Spot 

Image electro-optical satellite imagery and data 

from Italy, Germany and Canada’s radar satellites, 

NGA now has access to almost a dozen commercial 

imagery satellites. 

During the Deepwater Horizon response, commercial data was also made available to the U.S. 

government from RapidEye, a constellation from 

Germany that includes five multispectral satellites 

with a daily revisit rate. Altogether, such commercial imagery availability is unprecedented, 

especially when compared to Hurricane Katrina 

in 2005, when NGA could access less than 

half as many unclassified commercial 

imagery systems.

The demand for commercial 

imagery to support disaster 

response and other 

critical mission areas 

will continue to grow. 

Today, commercial 

satellites are 

producing massive archives 

of data that 

have yet to 

be fully exploited for mapping and monitoring environmental change. This access provides incredible 

potential for commercially available archive imagery to support, for example, AFRICOM’s capacity 

building efforts for an area approximately the same 

geographic size as the United States, China, India 

and all of Europe combined. 

GeoEye and DigitalGlobe have around 1.5 billion square kilometers of the highest-resolution 

commercial imagery available in their archives, 

and Spot Image recently announced more than 

100 billion square kilometers of imagery holdings 

between 2.5 meters and 10 meters spanning all the 

way back to the 1986 launch of SPOT-1.

The future development of commercial imagery 

sources also looks promising. NGA recently awarded contracts for EnhancedView to DigitalGlobe 

and GeoEye with a period of performance for 10 

years if all of the contract options are 

exercised.
7 Pathfinder ›› November/December 2010 

Photo Illustration and Images 

Courtesy of Radarsat

Dawn Eilenberger 

is the Director of 

NGA’s Office of 

International Affairs 

and Policy.

Since this award, both U.S. companies have 

announced plans to build next-generation, highresolution commercial satellites.

In Europe, France is about to launch the first 

of two Pleiades high-resolution electro-optical 

satellites, and SPOT 6 and 7 are also in development. Germany is flying two identical synthetic 

radar aperture satellites a few hundred meters 

apart in space and will eventually produce the 

only global digital elevation model ever developed from a single commercial sensor, while 

also planning its next-generation SAR system.

South Korea is expected to launch its 

Kompsat-5 SAR satellite by the end of the year, 

followed shortly by the launch of its Kompsat-3 

electro-optical system. Kompsat-3 will launch on 

a Japanese rocket, further demonstrating a new 

level of cooperation with commercial systems 

that would 

have been unheard of a few years ago. Japan is 

also planning to launch in 2012-2013 a small satellite capable of collecting 0.5-meter unclassified 

imagery—an endeavor supported by Japan’s new 

space policy that specifically promotes space commercialization.

India currently has systems on orbit and in development with resolutions ranging from 1 kilometer to 

less than a meter that are supported by more than a 

dozen ground stations around the world.

Canada and Italy are both discussing follow-on 

SAR constellations, and countries like Spain and 

Turkey are becoming full members of the remote 

sensing community as they develop their own SAR 

and electro-optical systems.

The new U.S. National Space Policy released in 

June 2010 encourages the United States to enhance 

international cooperation and collaboration in 

space. Using and sharing commercial imagery in 

response to common international concerns provide one of the most effective ways to implement 

this objective.

Now more than ever before, NGA is able to “know 

the Earth” and monitor rapid changes on its 

surface during a crisis as well as changes 

occurring over time. Taking advantage 

of new sources of data will support 

NGA’s geospatial intelligence mission with foundation data for 

change detection, geospatial 

readiness and production 

and help develop new 

geospatial tradecraft. 
8Pathfinder ›› November/December 2010 

UGO Principles Underlie NSG Functional 

Management

By Chuck K.

Functional management engages and capitalizes upon the broad geospatial intelligence community and the value that it can deliver, looking beyond 

NGA to the entire GEOINT analysis and production 

partnership—the National System for Geospatial 

Intelligence. 

 Managing such a large enterprise requires an 

understanding of its scope, capacity and capabilities. To fully leverage that capability—which exceeds 

the sum of any partners’ individual efforts—the NSG 

must apply the principles of Unified GEOINT Operations, or UGO.

UGO is the “standardized and repeatable process 

to assess, align and execute GEOINT operations 

across the NSG.”

Three principles guide the implementation of 

UGO. The first is insight and access. By inventorying 

NSG resources, the community can obtain a detailed 

look at the capacities, capabilities and focus of NSG 

members and partners. Each year, designated UGO 

officers and managers, in support of organizations 

across the GEOINT enterprise, develop strategic 

business plans, looking a year ahead at anticipated 

resources, missions and areas of focus. 

While it is relatively easy to coordinate activities 

with someone in the next cubicle or down the corridor, it is considerably more difficult to grasp the 

entirety of GEOINT activities transpiring across the 

NSG. UGO planning conferences and the resulting 

production plans are the first steps toward identifying and assessing GEOINT work being done across 

the community. 

The second principle of UGO is alignment. 

Through a series of conferences, UGO officers and 

managers and the regional and functional NSG operations executives, or NOXs—community-wide GEOINT leaders—make it possible for NSG members and 

partners to assess how their capabilities and efforts 

align and mesh with those of others across the community. Through these conferences and subsequent 

meetings, NSG members minimize unnecessary 

duplication of effort and work towards reallocating 

freed analytical resources to fill shortfalls and gaps. 

Ultimately, the NOXs roll up those plans into their 

functional or regional GEOINT plans.

The third principle of UGO is centralized management and decentralized execution. The collection 

and roll-up of individual plans are a centralized 

management function conducted at the NOX level 

in coordination with each participating GEOINT 

organization. 

Execution (including decisions on how to expend 

resources) is decentralized, fully empowering each 

GEOINT organization’s UGO officer and UGO manager to determine how best to fulfill their mission 

responsibilities with a broader understanding of 
gaps. That is the power of UGO, and it is happening 

today.

We operate in a budget-constrained environment 

of ever-increasing, worldwide challenges. The NSG 

must make the best use of every enterprise resource, 

being as responsive as possible to the needs of its 

members and mission partners. Fully realized, Unified GEOINT Operations is the collaborative, synergistic effort that gives everyone in the NSG the ability 

to properly assess and align resources to execute 

the mission for the best possible outcome for all. 

Understanding the breadth of the enterprise, aligning effort and executing effectively—these constitute 

the central concept of functional management in the 

NSG. 

9Pathfinder ›› November/December 2010 

Chuck K. is a contract employee with the Functional Management Executive for Operations.

what others in the NSG enterprise can do.

The UGO Directory, a web-enabled, interactive 

database of NSG operations, is the tool behind the 

process. From it, the entire NSG has visibility into 

what the many GEOINT-producing organizations are 

doing. With that information, everyone—especially 

the NOXs—is in a much better position to communicate the work they are doing, the problems they face 

and the solutions they have discovered.

UGO played a pivotal role in the NSG’s recent Haiti 

earthquake response. NGA’s Haiti Crisis Action Team 

leader, working as the regional NOX for the Americas, was able to call upon the full array of NSG’s 

GEOINT producers. 

Employing the principles, capabilities and power 

of UGO allowed decision makers, such as the Naval 

Oceanographic Office and the U.S. Transportation Command, to assess the needs of the crisis 

responders, align the efforts of dozens of organizations and get critical GEOINT into the hands of emergency response teams.

Finally, consider this future scenario; a disaster 

impacts an NSG organization, rendering it out of 

commission for a period of time. Armed with a

detailed knowledge of the NSG enterprise, functional managers are able to accurately assess the loss of 

capabilities, know where similar capabilities reside 

and quickly redirect assets to fill critical mission 

Crowds gather for the 56th presidential inauguration 

in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2009. NSG affiliated 

organizations including NGA, the U.S. Secret Service, the 

FBI, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the 

Department of Defense came together to support the event. 

Moving beyond co-production, the organizations effected 

precise and real-time geospatial intelligence based on a 

shared, collaborative understanding of the mission and the 

capabilities across the enterprise.

Satellite image courtesy of GeoEye ©2009.

Editor’s note: See the article on page 16 of this edition for more on 

Canada’s contribution to the UGO efforts responding to the earthquake in 

Haiti.
10Pathfinder ›› November/December 2010 

NSG Extends GEOINT Reach to Unclassified 

Communities By Christina H.

The National System for Geospatial Intelligence is working to bring unclassified geospatial 

intelligence products and information to a widening field of users and consumers through an 

alternative dissemination structure addressing the 

needs of the NSG’s unclassified partners.

Emergency responders, federal, state and local 

authorities, foreign partners and nongovernmental 

organizations supporting disaster relief or other 

critical situations routinely rely on releasable maps, 

graphics, models and other geospatial products.

In providing quick responses to crises and natural disasters around the world, international and 

domestic GEOINT communities have developed a 

collection of GEOINT products. Their commendable 

work has alleviated suffering and facilitated recovery, but also resulted in an uneven set of policies 

and dissemination tools that can impede information sharing.

The NSG has taken on the challenge of creating 

order from well-intentioned disorder. The NSG’s 

chief functional management officer has requested 

a formal analysis of information-sharing needs and 

capabilities within the geospatial community and 

their effects on the intelligence cycle of tasking, 

collection, production, exploitation and dissemination, or TCPED. 

This complex analysis must weigh each aspect 

of the TCPED process to identify the requirements, 

opportunities and gaps encountered by moving 

GEOINT throughout the unclassified world. 

A World of New Partners

The value of GEOINT is undeniable, and the demand for GEOINT support is increasing. Repeated 

after-action reports from crises like the Haiti earthquake response and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill 

in the Gulf of Mexico articulate the need to share 

GEOINT across partnerships. 

The NSG has been extremely successful sharing 

with its defense, intelligence and foreign partners through Service GEOINT Elements, National 

Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Support Teams, and 

other interagency and international collaborative 

relationships.

In 2010 alone, GEOINT operations supported 

relief efforts for the earthquakes in Haiti, Chile 

and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. These 

operations illustrate the demand for hardware, applications, storage and bandwidth 

to satisfy operational needs when users 

require quick access to geospatial products on unclassified networks.

In supporting the Deepwater Horizon oil 

spill remediation efforts, NGA provided 

analysis, commercial satellite imagery 

and geospatial products of the Mississippi River Delta and surrounding Gulf 

Coast areas. The products included 3-D 

models of major infrastructure along the 

A U.S. Marine on patrol with Afghanistan National Army 

soldiers checks his location during a security halt in the 

Depak valley, Afghanistan

NGA Photo
11Pathfinder ›› November/December 2010 

Gulf Coast, operational planning map atlases and 

graphics depicting the extent of the oil spill. These 

products greatly assisted the U.S. Coast Guard, the 

lead federal agency for the disaster, in its response 

efforts.

The NSG’s networked structure requires it to 

think about its partners’ partners. If the Coast 

Guard or the U.S. Department of State wants to 

share a product with a local partner or nongovernmental organization providing critical services, 

then the NGA and the NSG need to adjust for this 

relationship even before the product is created. 

Members of the NSG, including NGA, are already 

addressing these challenges. During crisis operations, NGA, relevant combatant commands and the 

State Department use workarounds to produce and 

disseminate geospatial products by transferring 

information between multiple systems. 

Nevertheless, without an end-to-end TCPED 

process and the associated standards, policies and 

equipment in place, these nonuniform methods 

often result in information that agencies cannot 

reuse or that they can provide to only a fraction of 

those needing it.

Preventing Crises by Building Capacity

Building geospatial capacity is just as important 

as supporting crises, and the agency’s engagement 

with Africa exemplifies that philosophy. NGA is 

gaining recognition within the African geospatial 

analysis community through efforts of the NGA Support Team for the U.S. Africa Command. The NST, 

working as part of AFRICOM’s interagency team, 

provides timely, value-added GEOINT to support the 

command’s security engagements, military-to-military programs and civil operations as it promotes a 

stable and secure African environment. 

The NSG interacts with the African professional 

geospatial community through events like the 

AfricaGIS Conference, held in Kampala, Uganda, 

in October 2009. This biennial conference and 

other AFRICOM-led efforts give NGA analysts an 

enhanced perspective on global geospatial information challenges while providing an opportunity 

to explore new developments, products, datasets 

and trends.

Capacity building also develops relationships. 

Following the 2009 AfricaGIS Conference, analysts 

provided direct support to the U.S. defense attaché 

in Kampala and created customized products 

to support U.S. engagements with the Ugandan 

People’s Defense Force leadership. 

Just as capacity building in Eastern Europe in the 

1990s resulted in the 28-member Multinational 

Geospatial Coproduction Program, current engagement with Africa provides immense opportunities 

for the future. Building capacity and sharing information within the African geospatial community, or 

any community in the world, requires information 

and products that are affordable and easily available to partners.

Crisis response and support to federal and international partners demonstrate a diversity of mission areas with unique information-sharing needs, 

yet all these missions’ differing needs are more 

easily fulfilled and far more productive through 

standardized and consistent dissemination. The 

ability to meet the world’s demands requires an efficient way to access, exploit and disseminate geospatial products with partners whose information 

technology systems vary and are not compatible 

with those of the NSG, NGA and the U.S. Department of Defense. 

Moving toward unified unclassified engagement 

is the next step in GEOINT maturation. 

Christina H. is a staff officer in the Office of Geospatial

Intelligence Management.
12Pathfinder ›› November/December 2010 

Thai Cooperation Enhances Disaster Relief

By Melissa M.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency 

provides geospatial intelligence support to humanitarian and disaster-related events around 

the world. Because of the numerous large-scale 

natural disasters in Asia-Pacific area, NGA and its 

Asia-Pacific partners are collaborating to standardize and improve GEOINT support to humanitarian 

assistance and disaster relief in the region.

Thailand, a country that encounters flooding 

and other natural disasters on a regular basis, is 

one of the nations that partners with NGA on the 

response to these crises. In November 2009, NGA 

and Thailand’s Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency, or GISTDA, signed a 

Memorandum of Understanding to support GEOINT 

collaboration on humanitarian and disaster-related 

issues. The event marked a major milestone in 

NGA’s relationship with Thailand. 

Since the signing of the MOU, the two agencies 

have participated in technical exchanges and 

shared geospatial information to support the development of a handbook, case study and analytic 

methodologies for humanitarian assistance and 

disaster relief. The overall goals of the interagency 

work are to share analytic expertise, promote 

interoperability and leverage resources to enable 

timely support to mitigate crises and disasters 

throughout the region. 

Expanding Thailand’s Capabilities

GISTDA was formally established in November 

2000. It is the primary agency in Thailand responsible for space technology, geo-informatics application and satellite data dissemination. The 

data and services it provides support cartography, disaster management and agricultural 

development. 

Thailand joined the ranks of remote sensing 

countries when it launched its first satellite 

on Oct. 1, 2008. Thailand’s Earth Observa-
13Pathfinder ›› November/December 2010

Thinkstock Photo

tion Satellite, or THEOS, has a medium-resolution 

imaging capability that covers the Asia-Pacific region. 

Enhancing Humanitarian Assistance

NGA analysts supporting U.S. Pacific Command 

have developed a humanitarian assistance and 

disaster relief handbook in an effort to establish 

GEOINT standards and document methods and 

procedures for developing geospatial products in a 

repeatable and uniform way. Various international 

partners have contributed to the handbook, which 

will be used at an annual training class held in 

Hawaii. GISTDA is one of several international organizations that have sent participants to the training 

class, which also serves as a forum for sharing what 

has worked best in the Asia-Pacific region. 

NGA and GISTDA share geospatial data, including 

THEOS imagery, which can be used for joint 

projects and NGA analysis. In August 

2010, NGA provided technical training in 

Bangkok related to cartography and geospatial analysis for humanitarian and 

disaster-related events. GISTDA, in addition to the Royal Thai Survey Department of the Royal Thai Armed Forces, 

provided meaningful feedback to NGA regarding 

international and cross-cultural considerations for 

GEOINT products used in these situations. 

Emulating Interagency Collaboration

Following a natural disaster, strong international partnerships are critical for providing quick 

responses to save lives and prevent further infrastructure damage. NGA’s relationship with GISTDA 

represents a model to follow for quick collaboration. Both agencies regularly exchange expertise 

and geospatial information to improve their capacity to provide quality GEOINT products. 

NGA’s partnership with GISTDA signifies one of 

the initial nodes in the humanitarian assistance 

and disaster relief network of GEOINT expertise. 

Melissa M. is NGA’s Office of International Affairs and 

Policy representative to U.S. Pacific Command.
14Pathfinder ›› November/December 2010 

Improving Geospatial Data for Humanitarian 

Support 

Submitted by the Australian Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation

An initiative creating an online geospatial 

data repository, led by Australia and Singapore on 

behalf of the Association of South-East Asian

Nations, is enabling more consolidated, cohesive 

and successful humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, or HADR, operations worldwide.

A senior Australian Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation executive, Frank Colley, is 

driving the capability initiative, which aims to draw 

members of the ASEAN Regional Forum and neighbors together. 

“DIGO has been involved in supporting HADR for 

many years,” Colley said. “However, experience 

has taught us that the provision of timely and effective support in times of crisis is greatly affected 

by the ready availability of source data.”

HADR events are erratic and unpredictable when 

they strike, and the ARF is highly supportive of 

a system that can support short-notice, urgent 

operations. 

Australia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific region 

are environments that are extremely susceptible 

to natural disaster and justify the requirement for 

humanitarian assistance. 

The region also contains some extremely remote 

and uncharted areas, where available information, 

Data extracted and exploited from the ARF-DReaMS 

service for crisis support planning purposes.

Graphics Courtesy of DIGO

data and mapping are poor or even nonexistent. 

The 27 member states of the ASEAN Regional Forum aim to foster dialogue, consultation and diplomacy on political and security issues of common 

concern and interest throughout the Asia-Pacific 

region. 

According to Colley, successful HADR operations 

are principally enabled by a series of well-made 

and timely decisions, and many of these decisions 

have a critical, underlying spatial or geospatial 

component, such as:

»What type of disaster has occurred, and what is

the extent?

»Who and what have been affected? 

»Where is the response most required?

»How will the response transit, and where will it 

arrive? 

»How will distribution occur?

Glenn Maiden leads DIGO’s efforts in responding 

to HADR crises.

“The tsunami of 2004 wreaked shocking damage in the South-East Asian region,” Maiden said. 

“The ramifications of this event were pivotal to 

ASEAN member countries when reassessing how to 

better plan for and respond to future disasters. In 

particular, the ARF recognized that the availability 
15Pathfinder ›› November/December 2010 

Editor’s note: this article was adapted from a story that originally appeared 

in Defence, the official magazine of the Australian Government Department 

of Defence, Issue 5, 2010.

of geospatial data in a timely manner is a critical 

enabler for a successful HADR effort.” 

At the ARF intersessional support group meeting 

in April 2009, Australia proposed the concept of 

an online, geospatial warehouse: the ARF Disaster 

Relief Mapping Service, or ARF DReaMS, provides 

a central location for countries affected by disaster 

to share geospatial information.

“We are particularly pleased that Singapore 

formally agreed to cosponsor the ARF DReaMS initiative, which was a major factor in achieving endorsement by the ARF Ministers on 23 July 2009,” 

Maiden said. 

The aim of ARF DReaMS is to provide a central 

data repository that is populated with broad-scale 

base data, with a key focus on aeronautical data 

for South-East Asia and the Pacific. 

ARF DReaMS is based on Web service technology, where traditional maps, data and any relevant 

geospatial information are made available 

digitally. As a baseline, the system is nominally a 

1:500,000-scale map skin, augmented with commercially sourced aeronautical data.

In the initial capability, ARF DReaMS operates 

much like any traditional web portal, where members authenticate to a secure site to access and 

upload geospatial data relevant to HADR planning 

and operations.

Once a representative from a member country 

logs on to ARF DReaMS, the user is able to upload 

any additional information related to the member 

country’s area of responsibility and access the data 

provided by all members when supporting HADR 

missions.

Member countries are expected to provide more 

detailed data on a voluntary basis and are not 

expected to upload any sensitive data. “DIGO 

envisages an open system that is able to accept 

any available data relevant to the HADR mission at 

hand, such as geospatial data, photos, PDF documents, etc.,” Maiden said.

Colley said that DIGO views the system as 

evolutionary. “We believe that the ARF DReaMS 

capability provides a great foundation for future 

development,” Colley said. “Once our ARF partners 

build their confidence in the site and see its potential, the site will rapidly expand in the level of 

participation and the range and utility of the data 

made available.

“The July rollout is focused on delivering an initial HADR data warehouse and dissemination capability... so once the system has proven its utility 

and viability in the HADR arena, it is expected that 

ARF DReaMS will be augmented with additional 

capabilities, such as advanced geospatial modeling and editing tools.

“By proactively making HADR information available before a crisis, we aim to facilitate enhanced 

HADR planning and training and assist in the 

development of policies for better information 

sharing,” Colley said. 

In times of crisis, the system will provide prompt 

and consistent data dissemination and will link 

the people who are providing support to enable 

more effective and timely HADR outcomes—a great 

win–win situation for the region. 

Since going live in July 2010, discussions with 

regional countries and their respective geospatial 

agencies have been positive in support of the need 

for a geoportal like ARF DReaMS. Communication 

through the ASEAN Regional Forum Inter-Sessional 

Meeting on Disaster Relief in September 2010, has 

also been promising.

ARF DReaMS will be used in support of the 

upcoming ASEAN Regional Forum Disaster Relief 

Exercise, to be held in Manado, Indonesia, in 

March 2011. This will test its capability in a live 

environment by all support agencies, indigenous 

and international. 
In response to NGA’s request, the Canadian 

Forces Mapping and Charting Establishment, a 

D Geo Int line unit, quickly reallocated resources 

towards the completion of the Haiti data cells. 

Within 10 days of the disaster, the Canadians were 

completing two cells per day. 

The MGCP exemplifies the utility of coproduced 

foundation data and its application toward generating graphics to support relief efforts. MGCPderived graphics, or MDGs, are similar to TLMs, 

but can be produced and delivered more rapidly to 

warfighters or first responders. Each TLM can take 

months or even a year to produce. MDGs may not 

meet 100 percent of military specifications, but 

they do give the “boots on the ground” a map to 

meet their mission requirements.

Canada used the MGCP foundation data to 

produce a series of six 1:50,000 scale TLMs and 

nine 1:50,000 MDGs. The Canadians printed 6,000 

copies of each product, with 3,000 copies going 

to NGA, 50 to the U.S. Southern Command via 

NGA, and 1,500 forwarded to various other forces 

deployed to Haiti in response to the earthquake. 

Additionally, the MGCP foundation data was used 

as the basis for numerous other geospatial intelligence products generated throughout the NSG. 

These products were essential to those planning 

and executing response, recovery and relief operations in Haiti. 

Canada is a member of the Allied System for 

Geospatial-Intelligence, an NSG partner that represents the strong GEOINT relationship between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom 

and the United States.

Owing to its preparedness and versatility, 

Canada proved a major GEOINT contributor to the 

positive overall NSG relief efforts in Haiti. Additionally, Canada’s efforts reinforce the value of the 

MGCP and Unified GEOINT Operations. 

16Pathfinder ›› November/December 2010 

Canada Responds to Haiti Earthquake By Maj. Ed Batchelor, Canadian Army 

The major earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 

12, 2010, triggered a number of responses amongst 

the National System for Geospatial Intelligence and

its partners. 

Canada contributed significantly to the effort 

with its National Geospatial Intelligence Support 

Team, part of Canada’s Directorate Geospatial 

Intelligence, or D Geo Int, generating 43 geospatial 

intelligence products in the first week of the crisis. 

Primarily situational awareness products, damage 

assessments and route studies, half of them were 

produced within 48 hours of the 7.2 magnitude 

earthquake, greatly informing the decision making 

of senior military leadership.

Following the disaster, National GeospatialIntelligence Agency realized that more current and 

accurate foundation data of Haiti was needed. In 

response, the agency requested D Geo Int’s help to 

mitigate the shortfall. 

Canada is a lead nation in the Multinational 

Geospatial Coproduction Program, a 28-nation 

consortium producing high-resolution vector data 

on areas where quality foundation data is lacking. 

Canada had signed up to produce MGCP foundation data for Haiti and had completed 90 percent 

of the MGCP data cells over Haiti when the earthquake struck. A data cell is a one degree by one 

degree area of the Earth’s surface and contains 16 

1:50,000 meter Topographic Line Maps, or TLMs. 

Graphic Courtesy of Canadian Department 

of National Defence

Maj. Ed Batchelor is the senior Canadian geospatial

intelligence liaison officer assigned to NGA.
Americans—many from NGA—will work alongside 

their British, Canadian, Australian and New

Zealand allies and colleagues.

A smaller preliminary multi-intelligence unit will 

begin development at the JARIC—National Imagery 

Exploitation Centre this year—especially in support of the International Security Assistance

Force in Afghanistan—as a 60-person DGIFC trial 

and demonstration.

Although akin to the NGA Campus East nearing 

completion in Springfield, Va., the uniquely shaped 

main structure of the U.K. complex is largely dictated by the 50,000-square foot open exploitation 

area where the analysis and fusion will take place. 

The Pathfinder name commemorates the RAF 

Pathfinder Force, which provided precision target 

marking for RAF Bomber Command during World 

War II flying out of RAF Wyton and nearby airfields. 

The name remains pertinent to the role of the ICG 

components to be based at the new facility—to 

provide the intelligence and information required 

by U.K. and allied warfighters. 

17Pathfinder ›› November/December 2010 

Another Pathfinder Propels U.K.’s GEOINT Fusion 

Centre By Tim Fryer

The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence is 

building a new geospatial intelligence complex at 

the Royal Air Force base in Wyton, Cambridgeshire. 

By summer 2013, the main structure, fittingly named 

the Pathfinder Building, will house major elements 

of the ministry’s recently created Intelligence Collection Group, including the group’s headquarters and 

its Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre–

National Imagery Exploitation Centre. 

It will also become home to the planned Defence 

Geospatial Intelligence Fusion Centre, or DGIFC 

(pronounced “dee-giff-see”), which will focus on 

multi-intelligence fusion.

The prospect of collocating much of the ICG staff 

at RAF Wyton made the plan for the DGIFC possible. 

With assistance from U.S. intelligence agencies, 

including the Defense Intelligence Agency and the 

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the MOD 

Defence Intelligence organization successfully 

explored the concept of this multi-intelligence collaborative environment. 

Although the majority of Defence Intelligence personnel at Wyton will be GEOINT specialists, signals, 

human and measurement and signature intelligence 

personnel, many of whom are part of ICG based 

elsewhere in the United Kingdom, will contribute to 

the DGIFC output. It is anticipated that more than 30 

Tim Fryer is an employee at the United Kingdom’s Intelligence Collection Group Headquarters.

RAF Wyton’s Intelligence Pedigree

For RAF Wyton the new construction and the 

move-in of the Intelligence Collection Group will 

mark its return to being a major intelligencerelated base.

From 1953 until 1995, the RAF’s main strategic 

photographic reconnaissance base was Wyton. 

For most of this time a Royal Engineer Air Survey 

Liaison Section supported the reconnaissance 

operations—thus the base would have qualified as doing GEOINT long before the term was 

created. In recent years, details of the base’s 

involvement in early overflights of Russia have 

emerged. Most of the RAF’s Cold War electromagnetic intelligence and electronic warfare flights 

also took place at Wyton.

Wyton was also the home of the Joint School 

of Photographic Interpretation from 1969 to 

1997, training imagery analysts from the UK and 

many overseas countries. For most of the time, a 

USAF exchange officer was on the staff—a further 

example of UK-U.S. imagery intelligence collaboration going back many years.
18Pathfinder ›› November/December 2010 

Partnerships

Mentors Nurture Afghan Mapping Agency

By Craig M., Eric W. and Benjamin F.

The national infrastructure of any country 

requires an accurate geospatial reference system. 

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency sends 

mentors to Afghanistan to help the Afghan government develop the three disciplines critical to such 

a system: geodesy, geography and cartography.

NGA chose the Afghan Geodesy and Cartography 

Head Office, or AGCHO, as a strategic partner, 

sharing a similar mission, to build the Afghans’ 

capacity and create geospatial products with a 

coproduction capability. 

NGA has been engaged forming agreements, providing leadership training and building the Afghan 

Mapping Initiative since 2006.

Geodesy Mentor

An NGA geodesy mentor embedded directly with 

the AGCHO Geodesy Department has provided 

technical expertise to the Afghan geodesists, overseen the installation of the Comunity Operating 

Referencing Station, or CORS, sites and provided 

training and other support. 

Afghanistan’s current geodetic surveying capability lacks modern equipment and resources. 

Therefore, a reliable network of permanent survey 

marks with established 3-D coordinates referenced 

to a defined coordinate system are necessary to 

create a foundation for all geospatial work.

A geodetic surveying capability that provides 

precise point positioning, accurate mapping and 

elevation determination is essential to the

foundation for Geographic Information System, 

databases, cartography, geographic names, 

navigation systems, cadastral work, resource management programs and anything requiring a 3-D 

geographic position.

NGA’s Geodetic Surveys Division has undertaken 

to create a permanent reference network of GPS 

continually operating reference station sites 

throughout Afghanistan. 

The CORS network contains more than 1,450 

independently owned and operated stations managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration’s National Geodetic Survey.

The Afghan CORS network consists of 11 sites 

distributed geographically throughout the country. 

AGCHO has offices in 16 different cities, and most 

of the locations coincide with the placement of 

the CORS sites. A central server is installed in 

the AGCHO headquarters in Kabul that collects 

the data from all sites hourly, stores the data for 

future needs, retransmits some of it for local realtime GPS surveyors to use, compiles the data for 

transmission in various formats and then sends it 

to the NGS Web site, www.ngs.noaa.gov/CORS, for 

publication and distribution. 

All this depends on local infrastructure, such as 

electrical power, Internet and cell phone service, 

which are often intermittent, causing temporary 

lapses in data streaming. 

The mentor has the responsibility to ensure that 

the CORS sites are installed correctly and has travelled to some of the remote locations to work with 

the local AGCHO employees in cities such as Herat, 

Mazar-e Sharif and Maymanah. 

In addition to the CORS network, the geodesy 

mentor provides other support to the AGCHO Geodesy Department, including training in surveying, 

geodesy, gravity collection, geoid modeling and 

the computation techniques for each. The mentor 

also works with the survey teams, at times providing on-the-job training in surveying and collection 

techniques and then computations in the office of 

all the data collected in the field. 

Political Geography Mentor

A geography mentor from NGA’s Political Geog1. GEODESY

2. GEOGRAPHY

3. CARTOGRAPHY
training and a mechanism for NGA to evaluate 

AGCHO’s coproduction capabilities. 

The demanding training constantly challenged 

the AGCHO cartographers, many of whom were 

being exposed to a computer for the very first time. 

However, the cartographers were diligent, enthusiastic students and successfully completed the 

pilot program in April 2010, finishing 20 Image City 

Maps along the way. 

The AGCHO cartographers proved so eager that 

they agreed to assist NGA in fulfilling an

International Security Assistance Force requirement 

for Afghanistan Image Maps, products very similar 

to ICMs. To date, AGCHO has 50 AIM sheets in 

production. These carry both the NGA and AGCHO 

seals and reflect the beginning of what will be a 

long and mutually beneficial relationship between 

these two agencies.

As time goes on, more relationships are cemented, trust is earned and partnerships are 

strengthened with the AGCHO offices. In addition, 

other coalition partners have seen the progress 

made by NGA and are also offering their support. 

AGCHO credibility is growing among the Afghan 

government agencies and forming partnerships. It 

is rewarding for NGA to witness AGCHO becoming 

a significant and viable resource within the government of Afghanistan. 

19Pathfinder ›› November/December 2010 

raphy Division began deploying to AGCHO in 2008 

with the unique mission of creating and developing 

a standardization program for geographic names 

in Afghanistan. This mission has many challenges, 

including vast linguistic diversity, illiteracy and 

recurring violence and instability. However, two 

years later, significant progress has been made. 

The Board on Geographic Names for Afghanistan, or BGN-A, has been established to develop 

this standardization program in accordance with 

international standards. The first geographic 

names surveys conducted by Afghans have been 

conducted, and AGCHO has become increasingly 

recognized across the government of Afghanistan 

as the authority on geographic names. 

The geography mentor conducts training for the 

Afghan cartographers on Romanization and names 

standardization, guides the processing of field 

survey results, guides the BGN-A on foundational 

matters, provides technical expertise, works with 

the geographers to develop a geographic names 

database and discusses systems, networking and 

software needs with the information technology 

department to create an infrastructure to support 

these efforts. 

The geography mentor also attends meetings 

with other Afghan government offices to help foster 

cooperation across organizations.

Cartography Mentor

NGA also deploys a cartography mentor to 

AGCHO, with the mission of transforming an 

analog production system into a modern, digital, 

customer-oriented model. The mentor provides a 

wide variety of training, including fundamentals of 

cartography, data stewardship, feature extraction 

and attribution and large scale product finishing.

In 2009, NGA implemented an Image City Map 

pilot program with AGCHO that provided a yearlong, intensive training curriculum to a core group 

of their high-performing cartographers. The pilot 

program focused on the “finishing” procedure for 

ICMs and served as both a vehicle for advanced 

Craig M. is a program manager in the Mission Integration 

Division of the Foundation Based Operations Integration 

Office.

Eric W. is a geodesist in the Geodetic Surveys Division of 

the Office of GEOINT Sciences.

Benjamin F. is a political geographer in the Political

Geography Division in the Office of Targeting and Transnational Issues.
20Pathfinder ›› November/December 2010 

Partnerships

FBI Cultivates GEOINT Capability

By Roy Clark

The FBI increasingly relies on geospatial

intelligence to identify and address threats and 

vulnerabilities, using mapping tools, imagery, 

geospatial data and analysis to collect and analyze 

intelligence. 

To coordinate and facilitate the growth of GEOINT 

in the FBI, the bureau’s Directorate of Intelligence 

created the Geospatial Intelligence Unit in January 

2009.

The unit has successfully established itself as 

a focal point within the FBI in the development of 

a bureau-wide geospatial capability by fostering 

crucial partnerships within the bureau and with the 

Intelligence Community.

FBI Headquarters, Washington D.C.

FBI Photo

As of September, GIU has trained more than 

300 bureau personnel in all field offices on ESRI’s 

ArcGIS, a sophisticated geospatial software application considered to be the standard in the law 

enforcement and intelligence communities. ArcGIS 

provides the capability for spatial analysis, data 

management and mapping.

The software displays relevant information 

for a specific geographic area, including critical 

infrastructure, crime patterns and human source 

coverage. For GIU, the goal is to provide employees 

with high-tech mapping tools to look at national 
included funding for intelligence analysts to attend 

GEOINT classes and visit NGA facilities.

“We actually have NGA analysts on its [NGA] 

Support Team to FBI who are assigned throughout 

the bureau. There are analysts who are embedded 

in our unit from that support team,” said Richards. 

He added that the NGA analysts are limited in what 

they are allowed to do because of Intelligence 

Community restrictions, which is why the FBI needs 

to train its own personnel.

FBI

The GIU also works with many other successful 

GEOINT programs in place at the FBI, including 

Project Pinpoint, a simple-to-use, computer-based 

program that combines mapping software with 

intelligence data, such as crime locations and patterns, felony warrants and cell phone patterns.

Created by the Safe Streets Task Force of the 

FBI’s Philadelphia Division, Project Pinpoint allows 

law enforcement to identify sources of information 

and develop tips. It integrates existing police, 

court and FBI records into an off-the-shelf streetmap program that allows the bureau to combine 

and visually map crime data from a multitude of 

agencies—everything from shootings and human 

source coverage to outstanding warrants and open 

investigations.

As these successful partnerships attest, the FBI’s 

GIU has, in less than two years, driven the bureau’s 

growing cultivation of GEOINT applications for

law enforcement. 

 “We have analysts in our unit who are skilled in 

powerful geospatial software, and we are building 

that cadre to not only be the experts to build products for the bureau, but also to be experts that the 

field [offices] can rely on for their particular GEOINT 

concerns,” said Richards. 

21Pathfinder ›› November/December 2010 

security problems visually and geographically. With 

mapping technology, GIU can compare multiple 

data sets to advance investigations and analysis. 

“There are three important things about geospatial intelligence—data, data and data,” said 

Supervisory Special Agent Jason Richards, a GIU 

employee and former attorney who joined the FBI 

in 2005. 

“Every data set has some geographic component 

to it, whether it is an address, GPS location, route 

or surveillance log,” said Richards. “Geospatial 

software provides a really good fusion platform for 

that information. I could have signals intelligence, 

electronic intelligence, tracking info, as well as 

intelligence with a national security context, and 

I could bring them together with the GEOINT software and start to see possible relationships. It’s 

hard to do that with a spreadsheet.” 

On the strategic level, mapping enhances domain awareness and reveals connections among 

cases that GIU might not otherwise notice. On the 

tactical level, mapping criminal activity and overlaying it with the addresses of parolees on a map, 

for example, points to doors the FBI can knock on 

and persons who can provide the bureau with information to solve crimes or enhance investigations.

Intelligence Community

The GIU is also redeveloping iDX3, formerly 

iDomain, a customized version of Palanterra, an 

online mapping system designed by the National 

Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to describe, assess 

and depict physical features and GEOINT for homeland security operations. 

“Everyone can use it across the bureau to satisfy 

geospatial requirements. It’s a Web-based tool,” 

Richards said.

The bureau works seamlessly with NGA in efforts to build GEOINT capability. For example, GIU 

helped the bureau’s National Security Branch bring 

over the NGA manager who developed Palanterra 

on assignment as an iDomain executive-level program manager. In addition, the FBI’s 2010 budget 

Roy Clark works in the FBI Office of Public Affairs.
A key aspect to successfully developing this 

integrated GEOINT enterprise architecture will be 

data and data management. Therefore adherence 

to known commercial and military formats and 

GEOINT standards is essential for interoperability 

and information sharing. Standards are vital as 

they ensure all the data collected will be readily 

available when needed. 

All systems and participants must collect and tag 

information in a consistent manner so that GEOINT 

production centers on the peninsula are able to 

share the information among themselves.

The Enterprise Architecture and Standards Office has already begun working with both Korean 

and U.S. participants to address data formatting 

standards issues. All stakeholders now have a collective understanding of the importance of meeting 

standards.

Other important aspects that will need to be 

integrated include naming conventions, metadata 

standards, search and retrieval tools, and the ability to store, move and process increased amounts 

of GEOINT data. 

KORCOM’s future enterprise architecture will 

provide its partners with a system that enables 

them to engage in collaborative planning for both 

routine and crisis scenarios of mutual interest. 

It will also provide a shared mechanism that will 

enable each nation to manage its own prioritized 

collection, analysis and production program in a 

manner that is transparent to both producers and 

customers. 

22Pathfinder ›› November/December 2010 

Partnerships

Agency Lays the Foundation of Enterprise 

Architecture for Future U.S. Korea Command 

By Dr. Robert N. and Robert S.

A key mission for the National GeospatialIntelligence Agency is to advocate for interoperability and information sharing among its international 

partnerships. A good example is NGA’s initiative to 

develop the geospatial intelligence enterprise architecture for the major ongoing restructuring of the 

military relationship between the Republic of Korea 

and the United States to make sure the information 

technology requirements remain aligned with the 

mission after the transition.

By December 2015, the South Korean military 

will assume wartime control of its own troops, U.S. 

Forces Korea will have completed its transformation 

into the U.S. Korea Command, and the current ROK–

U.S. Combined Forces Command will be dissolved. 

The new KORCOM will support the ROK military in 

defending its nation and continue to be an extended U.S. presence within northeast Asia to maintain 

peace and stability throughout the region. 

Since the ROK forces will no longer be under a 

combined command, a major objective of NGA’s 

enterprise architecture effort is to ensure interoperability with ROK GEOINT data. Making NGA’s 

information and data available to the entire production community on the peninsula will increase the 

quality and quantity of geospatial products. 

Geospatial information and data from a number 

of disparate sources will be accessible to GEOINT 

partner organizations whenever they need it. In addition to increasing accessibility to information and 

data, the resulting GEOINT products will be made 

available to consumers both on and off the peninsula: operators, warfighters, planners, targeteers, 

policy makers, decision makers and senior leaders. 

The agency anticipates challenges to achieving 

the command’s GEOINT goals from the information 

technology, resource and policy perspectives. NGA 

has enlisted the full support of its relevant offices 

and directorates, as well as the U.S. Forces Korea 

and U.S. Pacific Command NGA Support Teams to 

address these challenges.

Dr. Robert N. is the director of the Enterprise Architecture 

and Standards Office in the Office of the Chief Information 

Officer. 

Robert S. is an enterprise architect in the Enterprise

Architecture and Standards Office.
But there is still much work to be done. Complex 

issues remain with full-motion video, data storage 

and product dissemination, but working together 

under the NSG makes these challenges more 

manageable. The NSG’s GEOINT partners, including 

academic and industry associates, continue to 

drive developments in the discipline’s knowledge 

base and technology, but the NSG must collectively 

do a better job of integrating those improvements 

into a multi-user architecture. 

As NGA and the NSG progress, the benefits of 

GEOINT functional management are becoming 

more tangible. As new applications for GEOINT are 

discovered and shared, the unified NSG community continues to realize cost savings, performance 

improvements and advanced capabilities.

The NSG values all its members, partners and 

associates—all play a critical role in the future success of GEOINT. 

23Pathfinder ›› November/December 2010 

Guest Column

Successive Directors Shape NSG By Paul R. Weise

The responsibility for geospatial intelligence

functional management recently transitioned to 

the leadership of a new functional manager. In 

August, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency 

welcomed Director Letitia A. Long, who reiterated 

her support for the National System for Geospatial 

Intelligence and her goal to increase the benefits 

of functional management throughout the NSG 

membership.

The NSG focuses on building the geospatial 

capacity of the United States and leading the global 

GEOINT community through investments, standards 

and training. Since its formal establishment in 

2007, the NSG has promoted GEOINT as a discipline 

with functional management as the most effective 

tool for unifying a geographically and bureaucratically diverse community. 

Successive NGA directors stamped their mark 

on functional management. Current Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., NGA

Director during 2001-2006, presided over the informal creation of the GEOINT community and many of 

its leading structures. Vice Adm. Robert B. Murrett, 

NGA Director during 2006-2010, formalized these 

structures and, with the Under Secretary of Defense 

for Intelligence and the DNI, promoted functional 

management as a viable method to organize the 

intelligence disciplines into communities of common concern. 

Now, Director Long will help evolve the NSG into 

a community whose cooperation and collaborative 

drive deliver benefits to all members. 

Successful intelligence is based on a holistic approach, and GEOINT provides a steady foundation 

for this success by providing location and visual 

dimensions to the intelligence picture; the growing worldwide demand, by both mission partners 

and allies, for geospatial information and systems 

demonstrates the value of GEOINT. The NSG coordinates the U.S. government and its allies’ approach 

to GEOINT, ensuring that efforts are not duplicated, 

investments are not wasted, and each member 

works in tandem with the larger community. 

The present and past two National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency directors at the Aug. 9 transfer of authority ceremony at NGA 

Campus East, Springfield, Va. From right, NGA Director Letitia A. 

Long, Vice Adm. Robert B. Murrett and Intelligence Community 

Director James R. Clapper Jr.

NGA Photo

Paul R. Weise is the chief functional management officer 

for the National System for Geospatial Intelligence. He is 

also the director of NGA’s Office of Geospatial-Intelligence 

Management. 
www.nga.mil