National Air and Space Intelligence Center The National Air and Space Intelligence Center ( NASIC ) is the USAF unit for analyzing intelligence on foreign air and space forces , weapons , and systems . NASIC assessments of aerospace performance characteristics , capabilities , and vulnerabilities are used to shape national security and defense policies and supports weapons treaty negotiations and verification . Organization . NASIC ' s Defense Intelligence Space Threat Committee coordinates " a wide variety of complex space / counterspace analytical activities " , and the Center includes a library with interlibrary loan to Air University , etc . History . In 1917 the Foreign Data Section of the Army Signal Corps ’ Airplane Engineering Department was established at McCook Field , and a NASIC predecessor operated the Army Aeronautical Museum of the Material Division , August 22 , 1935 . The Office of the Chief of Air Corps ' s Information Division had become the OCAC Intelligence Division by 1939 , which transferred into the USAAF as AC / AS , Intelligence and was known as A - 2 ( in April , 1942 , the Air Intelligence School was at the Harrisburg Academy . ) The United States Army Air Forces evaluated foreign aircraft during World War II with the " T - 2 Intelligence Department at Wright Field and Freeman Field , Indiana " . In July 1944 , Wright Field analysts fired a V - 1 engine reconstructed from " Robot Blitz " wreckage ( an entire V - 1 was reconstructed at Republic Aviation by September 8 ) . Post - war , Operation Lusty recruited German technology experts who were interrogated prior to working in the United States , e . g . , Dr . Herbert Wagner at a Point Mugu USMC detachment and Walter Dornberger at Bell Aircraft . The " capability … anticipated for Soviet intercontinental jet bombers " ( e . g . , in NSC 20 / 4 in the fall of 1945 ) determined a Radar Fence was needed for sufficient U . S . warning and that the " 1954 Interceptor " ( F - 106 ) was needed ( specified in the January 13 , 1949 , Air Development Order ) : " the appearance of a Soviet jet bomber [ was in the ] 1954 … May Day parade " . Air Technical Intelligence Center . On May 21 , 1951 , the Air Technical Intelligence Center ( ATIC ) was established as a USAF field activity of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence under the direct command of the Air Materiel Control Department . ATIC analyzed engine parts and the tail section of a Korean War Mikoyan - Gurevich MiG - 15 and in July , the center received a complete MiG - 15 that had crashed . ATIC also obtained IL - 10 and Yak - 9 aircraft in operational condition , and ATIC analysts monitored the flight test program at Kadena Air Force Base of a MiG - 15 flown to Kimpo Air Base in September 1953 by a North Korean defector . ATIC awarded a contract to Battelle Memorial Institute for translation and analysis of materiel and documents gathered during the Korean War . ATIC / Battelle analysis allowed FEAF to develop engagement tactics for F - 86 fighters . In 1958 ATIC had a Readix Computer in Building 828 , 1 of 6 WPAFB buildings used by the unit prior to the center built in 1976 . After Discoverer 29 ( launched April 30 , 1961 ) photographed the " first Soviet ICBM offensive launch complex " at Plesetsk ; the JCS published Directive 5105 . 21 , " Defense Intelligence Agency " , the Defense Intelligence Agency was created on October 1 , and were reorganized . Foreign Technology Division . In 1961 ATIC became the Foreign Technology Division ( FTD ) which was reassigned to Air Force Systems Command ( AFSC ) , and FTD intelligence estimates were subsequently provided to the National Security Council through the 1962 United States Intelligence Board ( cf . the CIA ' s Board of National Estimates ) . FTD ' s additional location at the Tonopah Test Range Airport conducted test and evaluation of captured Soviet fighter aircraft ( AFSC recruited its pilots from the Edwards AFB Air Force Flight Test Center ) . The aircraft of the 1966 Iraqi Air Force MiG - 21 defection was transferred to Nevada within a month of the flight , and the 1968 US Air Force and Navy Have Donut project flew the aircraft at Area 51 for simulated air combat training ( renamed Have Drill and transferred to the Tonopah TTR ) . U . S . casualties flying foreign aircraft included those in the 1979 Tonopah MiG - 17 crash during training versus a Northrop F - 5 and the 1984 Little Skull Mountain MiG - 23 crash which killed a USAF general . FTD detachments were located in Virginia , California ( Det 2 ) , Germany , Japan , and Det 5 - - first in Massachusetts and later Colorado ( Buckley ANGB ) . By 1968 FTD had an " Aerial Phenomenon Office " and in 1983 , FTD / OLAI at the Cheyenne Mountain nuclear bunker published the " Analysis of Cosmos 1220 and Cosmos 1306 Fragments " . National Air Intelligence Center . In October 1993 at the end of the Cold War , FTD became the National Air Intelligence Center as " a component of the Air Intelligence Agency " , and by 2005 had a Signals Exploitation Division after being renamed the National Air and Space Intelligence Center on February 15 , 2003 .