National Geospatial - Intelligence Agency The National Geospatial - Intelligence Agency ( NGA ) is a combat support agency of the United States Department of Defense with the primary mission of collecting , analyzing , and distributing geospatial intelligence ( GEOINT ) in support of national security . NGA was formerly known as the National Imagery and Mapping Agency ( NIMA ) . In addition , NGA is a key component of the United States Intelligence Community . NGA headquarters is located in Springfield , Virginia , and operates major facilities in the St . Louis , Missouri area , as well as support and liaison offices worldwide . The NGA was headquartered in Bethesda , Maryland until 2011 , when NGA consolidated many of its regional activities as part of the Base Realignment and Closure into a new campus near Ft . Belvoir in Fairfax County , Virginia . The NGA campus , at 2 . 3 million square feet ( 214 , 000 m ) , is the third - largest government building in the Washington Metropolitan Area , and its atrium is spacious enough to hold the Statue of Liberty . Its budget is classified but according to data leaked by Edward Snowden , in 2013 the organization received at least $ 4 . 9 billion . The NGA was credited by White House and military officials with providing critical information in support of Operation Neptune ' s Spear on May 2 , 2011 , in which the United States military raided a secret compound in Abbottabad , Pakistan , and killed Osama Bin Laden . History . U . S . mapping and charting efforts remained relatively unchanged until World War I , when aerial photography became a major contributor to battlefield intelligence . Using stereo viewers , photointerpreters reviewed thousands of images . Many of these were of the same target at different angles and times , giving rise to what became modern imagery analysis and mapmaking . Engineer Reproduction Plant ( ERP ) . The Engineer Reproduction Plant was the Army Corps of Engineers ' s first attempt to centralize mapping production , printing , and distribution . It was located on the grounds of the Army War College in Washington , D . C . Prior to this time , topographic mapping was largely a function of individual field engineer units using field surveying techniques or copying existing or captured products . In addition , ERP assumed the " supervision and maintenance " of the War Department Map Collection effective April 1 , 1939 . Army Map Service ( AMS ) / U . S . Army Topographic Command ( USATC ) . With the advent of the Second World War aviation , field surveys began giving way to photogrammetry , photo interpretation , and geodesy . During wartime , it became increasingly possible to compile maps with minimal field work . Out of this emerged AMS , which absorbed the existing ERP in May 1942 . It was located at the Dalecarlia Site ( including buildings now named for John C . Frémont and Charles H . Ruth ) on MacArthur Blvd . , just outside Washington , D . C . in Montgomery County , Maryland , and adjacent to the Dalecarlia Reservoir . AMS was designated as an Engineer field activity , effective July 1 , 1942 , by General Order 22 , OCE , June 19 , 1942 . The Army Map Service also combined many of the Army ' s remaining geographic intelligence organizations and the Engineer Technical Intelligence Division . AMS was redesignated the U . S . Army Topographic Command ( USATC ) on September 1 , 1968 and continued as an independent organization until 1972 , when it was merged into the new Defense Mapping Agency ( DMA ) and redesignated as the DMA Topographic Center ( DMATC ) ( see below ) . The agency ' s credit union , Constellation Federal Credit Union , was chartered during the Army Map Service era , in 1944 . It has continued to serve all successive legacy agencies ' employees and their families . Aeronautical Chart Plant ( ACP ) . After the war , as airplane capacity and range improved , the need for charts grew . The Army Air Corps established its Map Unit , which was renamed ACP in 1943 and was located in St . Louis , Missouri . ACP was known as the U . S . Air Force Aeronautical Chart and Information Center ( ACIC ) from 1952 to 1972 ( See DMAAC below ) . A credit union was chartered for the ACP in 1948 , called Aero Chart Credit Union . It was renamed Arsenal Credit Union in 1952 , a nod to the St . Louis site ' s Civil War - era use as an arsenal . Defense Mapping Agency ( DMA ) . The Defense Mapping Agency was created on January 1 , 1972 to consolidate all United States military mapping activities . DMA ' s " birth certificate " , DoD Directive 5105 . 40 , resulted from a formerly classified Presidential directive , " Organization and Management of the U . S . Foreign Intelligence Community " ( November 5 , 1971 ) , which directed the consolidation of mapping functions previously dispersed among the military services . DMA became operational on July 1 , 1972 , pursuant to General Order 3 , DMA ( June 16 , 1972 ) . DMA was first headquartered at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington , D . C , then at Falls Church , Virginia . Its mostly civilian workforce was concentrated at production sites in Bethesda , Maryland , Northern Virginia , and St . Louis , Missouri . DMA was formed from the Mapping , Charting , and Geodesy Division , Defense Intelligence Agency ( DIA ) , and from various mapping - related organizations of the military services . DMAHC was formed in 1972 when the Navy ' s Hydrographic Office split its two components : The charting component was attached to DMAHC , and the survey component moved to the Naval Oceanographic Office , Bay St . Louis , Mississippi , on the grounds of what is now the NASA Stennis Space Center . DMAHC was responsible for creating terrestrial maps of coastal areas worldwide and hydrographic charts for DoD . DMAHC was initially located in Suitland , Maryland , but later relocated to Brookmont ( Bethesda ) , Maryland . DMATC was located in Brookmont ( Bethesda ) , Maryland . It was responsible for creating Topographic maps worldwide for DoD . DMATC ' s location in Bethesda , Maryland is the former site of NGA ' s headquarters . DMAHC and DMATC eventually merged to form DMAHTC , with offices in Brookmont ( Bethesda ) , Maryland . DMAAC originated with the U . S . Air Force ' s Aeronautical Chart and Information Center ( ACIC ) and was located in St . Louis , Missouri . National Photographic Interpretation Center ( NPIC ) . Shortly before leaving office in January 1961 , President Dwight D . Eisenhower authorized the creation of the National Photographic Interpretation Center , headed by Arthur C . Lundahl , combining Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) , Army , Navy , and Air Force assets to solve national intelligence problems . NPIC was a component of the CIA ' s Directorate of Science and Technology ( DDS & T ) and its primary function was imagery analysis . Cuban Missile Crisis . NPIC first identified the Soviet Union ’ s basing of missiles in Cuba in 1962 . By exploiting images from U - 2 overflights and film from canisters ejected by orbiting Corona satellite s , NPIC analysts developed the information necessary to inform US policymakers and influence operations during the Cuban Missile Crisis . Their analysis garnered worldwide attention when the Kennedy Administration declassified and made public a portion of the images depicting the Soviet missiles on Cuban soil ; Adlai Stevenson presented the images to the United Nations Security Council on October 25 , 1962 . National Imagery and Mapping Agency ( NIMA ) . NIMA was established on October 1 , 1996 by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997 . The creation of NIMA followed more than a year of study , debate , and planning by the defense , intelligence , and policy - making communities ( as well as the Congress ) and continuing consultations with customer organizations . The creation of NIMA centralized responsibility for imagery and mapping . NIMA combined the DMA , the Central Imagery Office ( CIO ) , and the Defense Dissemination Program Office ( DDPO ) in their entirety , and the mission and functions of the NPIC . Also merged into NIMA were the imagery exploitation , dissemination , and processing elements of the Defense Intelligence Agency , National Reconnaissance Office , and the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office . NIMA ' s creation was clouded by the natural reluctance of cultures to merge and the fear that their respective missionsmapping in support of defense activities versus intelligence production , principally in support of national policymakers — would be subordinated , each to the other . NGA . With the enactment of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 on November 24 , 2003 , NIMA was renamed NGA to better reflect its primary mission in the area of GEOINT . As a part of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure ( BRAC ) process , all major Washington , DC - area NGA facilities , including those in Bethesda , MD ; Reston , VA ; and Washington , DC would be consolidated at a new facility at the Fort Belvoir , VA proving grounds . This new facility , called the NGA Campus East houses several thousand people and is situated on the former Engineer Proving Ground site near Fort Belvoir . NGA facilities in St . Louis were not affected by the 2005 BRAC process . The cost of the new center , as of March 2009 , was expected to be $ 2 . 4 billion . The center ' s campus is approximately and was completed in September 2011 . Organization . Employees . NGA employs professionals in aeronautical analysis , cartography , geospatial analysis , imagery analysis , marine analysis , the physical sciences , geodesy , computer and telecommunication engineering , and photogrammetry , as well as those in the national security and law enforcement fields . NIMA / NGA Directors . This table lists all Directors of the NIMA and NGA and their term of office . On February 22 , 2010 , Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced that Letitia Long would become director later that year , becoming the first woman to head one of the 16 Intelligence Community component agencies . Long was at the time deputy director of the DIA . Long was sworn in on August 9 , 2010 as head of the NGA . Controversies . NIMA / NGA has been involved in several controversies .