SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2005

NGA Makes the Difference HURRICANES and TECHNOLOGY CHALLENGES >>GETTING IT TOGETHER, BY U.S. REP. PETE HOEKSTRA

>>TECHNOLOGY CHALLENGES IN A NEW WORLD

>>GETTING TECHNOLOGY TO THE WARFIGHTER

2 3 PATHFINDER September/October 2005 Vol. 3, No. 5

ON THE COVER NGA made available the first cloud-free satel- lite image of downtown New Orleans from a US commercial satellite to government agen- cies and first responders. NGA also provided on-the-spot analysis like this photograph of New Orleans and damage assessment graphic. Cover design by Leon Samuels.

GETTING PUBLISHED All members of the geospatial intelligence community are welcome to submit articles of community-wide interest. Articles are edited for style, content and length. The copy deadline is the last Friday of the third month before publication. For details on submitting articles, e-mail the Pathfinder. Our address 8 is [email protected].

Published by the National Geospatial- Intelligence Agency Director—Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper, Jr., Contents USAF (Ret.) Office of Corporate Relations, Director—Mark Schultz Letter to Our Readers ...... 4 Corporate Communications Division, Chief—Art Haubold On My Mind: Hurricane Katrina ...... 5 Strategic Communications Branch, Chief—Louis Brune About the Authors ...... 6 Editor—Paul Hurlburt Managing Editor—Matt Reiner Visual Communications Division, FEATURES Chief—Elizabeth Dann Interior Design—Laura Garber NGA Hurricane Response Sets Precedent ...... 8 Correspondence should be addressed to: Pathfinder, National Geospatial- Getting It Together, by U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra ...... 15 Intelligence Agency Office of Corporate Relations Strategic Communications Branch Technology Challenges in a New World ...... 18 (OCRNS) 4600 Sangamore Road, Mail Stop D-54 Bethesda, MD 20816-5003 Getting Technology to the Warfighter ...... 23 Telephone: (301) 227-7388, DSN 287-7388, or National System for GEOINT Aims to Eliminate Barriers . . . 27 In St. Louis: (314) 263-4142, DSN 693-4142. Council Ensures Rapid Technology Insertion ...... 31 E-mail: pathfi[email protected]

NGA Improves JPEG2000 Performance for GEOINT ...... 32 The Pathfinder is the medium by which the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency enhances and promotes public awareness DEPARTMENTS and understanding of the discipline of geospatial intelligence. The views, statements Our Heritage: New Look at Vietnam War Support ...... 34 and opinions of authors who are not NGA personnel are solely those of the authors, are not endorsed by the NGA and should 21st Century: AGI Holds Promise for Essential Change . . . . 36 not be construed as officially sanctioned or representative of the position of the NGA. Articles in this issue of The Pathfinder may Industry: Small Companies Help NGA be reproduced in whole or in part without Make a Difference ...... 38 permission, unless stated otherwise. If they are reproduced, please credit the author and the “National Geospatial-Intelligence Partnerships: NGA and DARPA Collaborate on Agency, The Pathfinder magazine.” Any reproduction of graphics, photographs, and ‘Hard Problems’ ...... 41 imagery is subject to the original copyright.

2 3 Letter to our Readers

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were not on the horizon when we began this issue on NGA’s technology challenges. So, it is appropriate that we highlight the contribu- tion made by NGA members before, during and after these hurricanes. Both our technical and analytical expertise enabled us in our support to those affected by these tragic events. As the Director states in his column, because of the hurricanes, “NGA’s technological capabilities have been brought to bear as never before.” He also notes that support our Agency provided clearly illustrates our ability to “Know the Earth and Show the Way.” Both ideas are exemplified in the article we have Hurricanes and added to this issue on NGA’s hurricane response. This interplay between people and technology continues, as we look at technology Technology challenges facing NGA from the vantage point of our many contributors and end users. The fourth issue in our series on how NGA is making an essential difference Challenges begins with an article by the Honorable Pete Hoekstra, Chairman of the House Permanent Committee on Intelligence. “The Agency is now fulfilling its promise of closer integration between mapping and imagery analysis,” he says.

In my article, I introduce a variety of technology challenges—from a near-term need for on-demand access to geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) to the long-term imperative of developing new and unconventional sources and processing methods. In an era of global persistent surveillance, analysts will require new strategies and architecture to rapidly exploit increases in data flow and data types.

In “Getting Technology to the Warfighter,” NGA’s Deputy Military Executive, Ed Mornston, explains how close interaction with warfighters is necessary to keep the technology relevant in a continually changing context. “Getting high-end, dense GEOINT into the hands of ‘disadvantaged users’ who are well forward on the battlefield is the issue that many commanders feel is the next big step in GEOINT support to operations,” he says.

Other articles discuss eliminating barriers in the National System for GEOINT, NGA’s strategy for inserting technology rapidly, and how NGA improvements to JPEG2000 are revolutionizing the processing of imagery. Our Historian looks at Vietnam War support, which foreshadowed today’s collaboration within NGA and across the Intelligence Community. “21st Century” discusses advanced geospatial intelligence, and our “Industry” column looks at small companies with projects that promise to have a big impact. In “Partnerships,” we feature our collaboration with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on “hard problems.”

In the next Pathfinder, we’ll look at how NGA is making a difference in the inter- national community, using GEOINT to support U.S. leadership abroad, working with foreign partners to enhance the value of GEOINT and helping many nations improve their capabilities.

Mark Schultz Director, Office of Corporate Relations

4 5 On My Mind NGA Responds to Gulf Coast Catastrophe By Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper, Jr., USAF (Ret.), Director, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Our nation is facing the tragic aftermath of the worst natural disaster in our history. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have devastated the Gulf Coast area of the United States, from Texas to Alabama. We extend our deepest sympathies to all those affected by this terrible, unprecedented catastrophe.

NGA is doing everything we can to and transmitted electronic Notice to support ongoing relief and recovery Mariners updates along with weather operations. Our Agency’s efforts began information to mariners in the Gulf of even before Hurricane Katrina struck. Mexico. On Friday, Aug. 26, NGA forwarded 100 Developed an integrated strategy graphics depicting the locations of key to task and acquire imagery from infrastructures—hospitals, police stations, a variety of platforms and sensors. highways, schools, etc.—for the counties This provided the best information in the path of Hurricane Katrina. Those for analysis and public discussion. graphics provided local and state govern- ment agencies with a common operational Over the past several weeks, NGA’s tech- picture of key facilities. nological capabilities have been brought to bear as never before. Our response to Since the hurricanes struck, NGA these hurricanes clearly illuminated our personnel: technical know-how. Equally impressive Analyzed pre-hurricane and post- has been NGA’s analytical contribution hurricane data to help develop dam- to the relief efforts. NGA analysts have age assessments of the affected region, worked closely with the Federal Relief including critical infrastructure Community to provide round-the-clock and long-range assessments of the support. NGA personnel created and petroleum industry. provided tailored and specific analytic products that enabled national and opera- Provided the Federal Emergency tional situational awareness, assessment, Management Agency the first cloud- planning and execution. Rapid decision free satellite image of downtown making was the outcome during response New Orleans from a U.S. commercial and recovery. And, new customers who satellite. Then, NGA personnel, work- now appreciate the power of geospatial ing closely with commercial vendors, intelligence were established. provided all our unclassified imagery holdings to the general public through People helping people, whether technical, the World Wide Web. analytical or support, is what distinguishes Deployed to the impacted region to NGA as we carry out our mission to “Know provide on-the-spot support to U.S. the Earth and Show the Way.” government agencies also deployed to the region. They exploited the ability to “reach back” to NGA for additional support. James R. Clapper, Jr. Took over operations from the Lieutenant General, USAF (Ret.) damaged U.S. Coast Guard facility Director 4 5 About the Authors As Director of the Office of Americas, Lynne Puetz is the Issue Manager for NGA’s response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Formerly Director of the Office of Lynne Puetz Global Navigation, she joined the Agency in St. Louis after serving as an engineer with the Army Corps of Engineers.

U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan is Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra

Mark Schultz is Director of the Office of Corporate Relations.

Ed Mornston is NGA’s Deputy Military Executive.

John Doty is an NGA Staff Officer in the Acquisition Mark Schultz Systems Office, Acquisition Directorate.

Joe Klimavicz is the Enterprise Operations Directorate Technical Executive.

Jennifer Lafley is the InnoVision Directorate Com- Ed Mornston munications Team Lead. She was Media Chief for the Military District of Washington before returning to NGA, where she worked previously in public affairs.

Danielle Forsyth is Co-Founder and CEO of Thetus Corporation, a knowledge discovery and search soft- John Doty ware company working with NGA on the GKB-P and other geospatial semantic programs.

Colby Harmon is an Imagery and Geospatial Scientist in the Office of the Chief Architect, Office of Geospatial- Joe Klimavicz Intelligence Management.

Alec Klatchko is a Lockheed Martin Systems Engineer and a member of the Advanced Engineering team in the IEC (Integrated Exploitation Capability) program.

Jennifer Lafley Dr. Martin Gordon is the NGA Historian and Chief, Corporate History Branch, Office of Corporate Relations.

Mike Geggus is the Director of the Office of Advanced Geospatial Intelligence in NGA’s Analysis and Produc- Alec Klatchko tion Directorate.

6 7 John L. Morris was Director of the Central MASINT Organization for five years before his departure to a staff assignment with the Director of Central Intelligence. For the past three years, he has

served Senior Advisor for MASINT and Advanced Dr. Martin Gordon Geospatial Intelligence in the Office of the Director, NGA. He assumed the position Oct. 1 of Director of the GEOINT-ONIR Transition Office.

A consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton, John Findley supports InnoVision’s Basic and Applied Research Mike Geggus Office and the SBIR Program Manager.

Matt Reiner, the managing editor of the Pathfinder, is a former Army officer now assigned to the Strategic Com- munications Branch, Office of Corporate Relations. John Findley

Matt Reiner

Appreciation for NGA’s Contribution NGA’s response to the historic natural disaster on the Gulf Coast has prompted compliments from across the government. NGA Director retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper Jr. shared one of these testimonies in an e-mail to the workforce. It came from the Deputy Homeland Security Advisor to the President, Michael P. Jackson, during a cabinet-level meeting to prepare for Hurricane Rita.

Speaking to the Director, the Deputy Homeland Security Advisor remarked, “I want you and the other conferees to know how much we appreciate what NGA is doing.”

He added: “I am an avid user of your products. The imagery and geospatial depictions of the damage and recovery efforts are absolutely invaluable. If any of the departments are not aware of NGA’s capabilities and responsiveness, you should get familiar. Your work is fantastic.”

6 7 NGA Hurricane Response SETS PRECEDENT By Lynne Puetz, Director, Office of Americas

he recent support NGA has for future geospatial-intelligence (GEO- provided to our nation in the INT) responses to worldwide issues.” T wake of two historic hurricanes has been unprecedented and viewed by NGA supported scores of customers many customers as “setting the standard in preparing for and responding to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The broad level of support included identifying key infrastructure, accurately locating

8 Photo by Rich Benjamin 9 citizens in need, conducting damage hazardous material locations, highways assessments, monitoring levee stability, and schools. issuing navigational advisories and many NGA had been tracking the hurricane other actions. before it brushed southern Florida on its NGA was on the ground at every key way to the Gulf of Mexico. As Katrina customer location providing critical veered toward the Gulf Coast, analysts information to first responders, national deployed ahead of the hurricane with agencies and the Department of Defense. regional teams of the Federal Emergency We organized across the Agency to provide Management Agency (FEMA) to be avail- reach-back for customer needs 24 hours able immediately. These analysts had full a day. access to NGA imagery, databases and products and the ability to reach back for Operations began before Katrina’s waves support from the greater NGA community came ashore on the Gulf Coast Aug. 29. through the establishment of Three days earlier, analysts had forwarded a Crisis Action Team in more than 100 graphics to crisis centers Bethesda, Md. Members of a military pre-positioned to respond to the aftermath support team begin relief operations near New of the disaster. These graphics depicted Orleans, La. NGA also the location of key infrastructures—air- sent several analysts to the disaster areas to assist with ports, hospitals, police and fire stations, relief and recovery efforts. emergency operations centers,

8 9 NGA deployed two of its Mobile Integrated Geospatial-Intelligence Systems (MIGS) to provide on-the-spot analysis of the First Responders a Priority hurricanes. The MIGS can Photo by Phil McCabe be set up and operational The first thing NGA analysts did after the within a few hours after hurricane passed over the Gulf Coast was reaching its destination. to task new reconnaissance so they could but they also focused on damage to key understand the extent of the damage. petroleum pipelines, refineries, offshore Collecting and analyzing imagery from drilling rigs and power plants throughout National Technical Means (NTM), com- the region. mercial providers and available airborne assets across the region, they provided To answer immediate questions posed information to help decision-makers better by first responders, analysts focused on focus available resources to critical areas outlining flood areas and identifying of concern. evacuation routes. The volume of data coming from all available sources allowed It became immediately apparent that the NGA analysts to obtain the necessary disaster was worse than anything we information to assist our customers in had seen on U.S. soil. The aftermath of planning each step in the recovery pro- the combination of storm surge, wind, cess. In all, Homeland Security analysts rain and ongoing flooding was horrific. looked at 167 kinds of data that our The damaged area was larger than Great Agency collects for its Homeland Security Britain. Infrastructure Program. Primarily, they compared stored data with current Analysts next turned their attention to imagery and updated the current situation 30 counties and parishes, designated by with each new source. We provided copies the FEMA, in the storm path. Analysts of this updated infrastructure program examined the imagery closely for stranded data to coordinators of state geographic people, missing houses, flooding and information systems, who distributed it other signs of local emergencies. Analysts to state and local entities. in the Homeland Security Division deter- mined that New Orleans and Hancock Immediately after the hurricane, our County, Miss., stood out as the hardest hit, Commonwealth partners offered their

10 PATHFINDER 11

- e Phil McCab Photo by ported the U.S. Northern (NORTHCOM), the Command its lead increased military NGA customers. unit, other 80 and headquarters, NORTHCOM at team liaison assigned analysts to Miss. Camp Shelby, to support Joint Force Task Katrina, and provided additional support to the 82nd Airborne Division, 1st Cavalry Division, and 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force. activities and identified potential staging staging potential identified and activities real-time a allowed capability This areas. geospatial common operational picture, shared by a variety of units in the field expertise to needed our who desperately needs. meet their mission Meanwhile, analysts in Bethesda looked at the levee breaks to examined they Next, length. determineand location their the entire levee to check for additional breaks and danger points. As a result, they detected a potential new breach in St. Bernard Parish, east of New Orleans, Army which Corps the of Engineers was serious, it became more able to fix before averting more potential lives lost damage. property and Besides supporting FEMA, NGA sup and rescue units operations. in casualty conducting locatingor people stranded recorded analysts forward-deployed Our rescue follow-on for survivors of locations a tip-off from one sensor will lead them to them lead will sensor one from tip-off a information better provide to another task to solve a customer’s requirement. Common Operational Picture One of the critical roles during the NGA first played few days of the search- and-recovery phase was assisting FEMA Urban the Search and Rescue teams assist to products of range a providing by departments fire departments, police local Their assistance proved invaluable to our to invaluable proved assistance Their support efforts. Analysts also worked closely with their co-workers in the Source and Management Directorate Operationsto find all sources available to improve and analysis production capabilities. When they try they customer, a for problem a at look to evaluate information Sometimes from answer. best multiplethe get to sources assistance. Four imagery analysts arrived arrived analysts imagery Four assistance. Britain Great and Canada Australia, from to work side by side in our footprint.

first responders. first governments, and and governments, GEOINT products were were products GEOINT of federal, state, and local local and state, federal, of used by several members members several by used Deployed NGA personnel supported the NGA also deployed a Remote Replication 82nd Airborne in search and rescue opera- System, capable of printing out digital files tions and Joint Task Force Katrina with and hardcopy input as paper maps, to data on concentrations of displaced civil- meet the requirements of officials involved ians and casualties requiring evacuation. on site in the recovery or in operational planning. For the military, RRS personnel In some cases, we helped find places downloaded copies of digital products to relocate these displaced persons. We directly to their “thumb drives.” identified a site in Louisiana—Camp Minden—that would be suitable for a tent NGA officials used a contract clause to city of 15,000 people. NGA also provided make commercial imagery and geospatial information to helicopter crews looking data available to state and local respond- for hospitals that could take survivors, ers. In short, the Agency purchased all the providing geospatial awareness first imagery collected by commercial vendors. responders needed to save lives. The Crisis Action Team immediately made this imagery available to the federal Support on the Ground government, state and local governments, NGA analysts on the ground worked and first responders through NGA’s World from two mobile support stations called Wide Web services. Mobile Integrated Geospatial-Intelligence Systems (MIGS) or “NGA in a Humvee.” Extraordinary Navigational Guidance Deployed during the invasion of Iraq, these units operate on their own power, Besides providing geospatial analysis, downloading imagery and graphics by NGA broadcast navigation safety mes- satellite and providing workstations for sages for the U.S. Coast Guard. Due to on-the-spot analysis. damage at District 8 Headquarters in New Orleans, the Coast Guard had lost Before arriving on the Gulf Coast, the the ability to provide communications to deployed analysts had collected all the their assigned area, the Caribbean Sea. Photos like the one below, map, infrastructure and imagery data avail- NGA assumed that responsibility for the along with NGA products, able for the region and downloaded it into gave government leaders Coast Guard. and first responders a laptops. Through the MIGS, they also had detailed and accurate access to the full range of NGA products The World Wide Navigational Warning damage assessment. and the help of experts back at NGA. Service in NGA’s Global Navigation Office provided essential information about port Responding to requests from U.S. govern- closures and waterway conditions, such as ment agencies operating in the disaster blocked channels, oil leakage, damaged area, the analysts generated more than oil platforms and grounded tank ships. 200 tailored geospatial products. Typical The Service also transmitted National products depicted damage to transporta- Weather Service messages to mariners at tion networks—what bridges were out, sea, covering gaps in service due to local what roads were flooded, what airfields outages. NGA has continued to broadcast were open. Analysts also created graphics operational warnings to customers, of petroleum facilities affected by the including the U.S. Navy and Merchant hurricane, which were needed to provide Marine, while Coast Guard systems are a common operational picture. These fully restored. products were also available to local and state users, who could now understand The backup NGA provided was unprec- the power of GEOINT in supporting their edented, according to the Chief of our current a futurePhoto courtesy planning of the Department needs. of the Army Maritime Division, Navy Capt. Paul Heim.

12 13 Photo by Rich Benjamin

NGA analysts received many inquiries from citizens “We normally broadcast warnings for the analysis of all the affected industries in wanting to know the status Atlantic and Pacific, a function that dates terms of environmental cleanups that are of their homes and property. back to the turn of the century,” Captain needed. The NGA Website provided an accurate and effiecient Heim said. “But because of Katrina, we way for them to access automatically kicked in to augment and The Agency has been given the authority this information. replace the Coast Guard capability.” to reach across federal, state and local governments to help people deal with the The Global Navigation Office also disaster. We are providing direct support monitored airfields within the affected to many organizations, including the area as well as those in the surrounding White House, Corps of Engineers, Envir- area designated to support relief efforts. onmental Protection Agency, FEMA, Aeronautical analysts provided assess- NORTHCOM and various other military ments of conditions at the airfields and customers. provided Notices to Airmen (NOTAMs) and aeronautical charts to military units NGA’s contributions are the result of a that deployed on short notice. phenomenal team effort from individuals across the entire organization. To quote the Role in Recovery Director, “Many, many people from across NGA have pitched in and contributed to As most of the Gulf Coast from Alabama this effort. You should know that our work to Texas recovers from Hurricanes Katrina has been noticed and appreciated—from and Rita, NGA continues to play an the President to first responder, and all important role. For example, the Office ranks in between.” of Americas has been participating in the

12 13 At the same time, NGA continues prepar- the two disasters, helping out in count- ing for disasters that will occur in the less ways, such as contributing to a future. In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina special appeal of the Combined Federal and Rita, senior leaders are conducting Campaign. a thorough assessment of the Agency’s response. As part of this effort, employees With all the natural devastation our had been asked through NGA Web pages country has been exposed to due to the to provide feedback for improvements last two major hurricanes, and the outcry with the goal of improving crisis and of need from our federal and military disaster response in the future. Employees customers, NGA has reached a new level across the Agency have also responded of providing GEOINT—a baseline we will generously as individuals to victims of build on to continue our transformation for the future.

Coalition Partners Provide Timely Expertise By Jessica Rasco

Analysts from the Commonwealth deployed to NGA Headquarters to augment the Homeland Security Division in responding to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. These individuals provided significant and sustained support to the response and recovery operations of the U.S. government.

The Canadian Forces Joint Intelligence Center provided imagery expertise that was invaluable in assessing the impact of Katrina to coastal petroleum refinery operations. The requested data analysis enabled mission planners to assess maritime navigation hazards as they prepared to conduct humanitarian operations along coastal Mississippi and Alabama. Canada also provided a functional analysis of critical petroleum pipelines south of New Orleans.

Analysts also deployed from the Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre in the United Kingdom. Their contributions included daily analyses of the flooding in New Orleans and vicinity. Their assessments of the receding floodwaters were provided to the federal response

community and briefed to the highest levels of the U.S. government. The British analysts also assessed damage and impact to southern Louisiana’s transportation network.

The Australian Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation (DGIO) monitored and assessed flood damage to southern Alabama. NGA and the DGIO also worked together in the aftermath of the Pacific tsunami, assessing infrastructure and industries in Indonesia.

14 15 Getting It Together R E D N I F H T A P By the Honorable Pete Hoekstra, Chairman, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

ncomiums are due the National very existence, much less their details Geospatial-Intelligence Agency were closely held in special compart- E and the talented men and women ments, as was the derived imagery and who not only are the muscle of the Agency, imagery intelligence. Later, satellites and but its soul. The Agency is now fulfilling satellite cameras were accorded the same its promise of closer integration between compartmented treatment. Contrast this mapping and imagery analysis. This is with the world of maps and charts, where most gratifying to the Congress which, the sources are openly credited, their bona despite some healthy questions from time fides available for inspection, to reinforce to time, has supported the Agency fully the authoritative nature of the products. from its inception through what we might Sadly, it took the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001 term its “adolescent phase.” Today, the to reset the balance between secrecy and concept of one, integrated Agency has sharing. come to feel quite natural, but it was not always so. Indeed, only last spring was the Technology jarred culture when, in the Agency able to announce that its Office middle of the last century, airborne and of Strategic Transformation was closing, space-borne imagery became the basis for signaling a final shift from the planning modern mapping, charting and geodesy. to the doing. The “doing” part may prove Observe that an anagram of “geodesy” is to be the most challenging aspect for “God’s eye.” It was the God’s eye view of NGA, and the Congress will be keeping overhead imagery and its metric accuracy a watchful eye on the pace and scope of that gave a tremendous boost to the world these efforts. of mapping. Before overhead imagery, map inputs were the result of ground While all the signs augured for a happy survey—chaining distances, turning union, arranging that marriage was not angles, compass headings, triangulation easy. It took people of clear vision to and metes and bounds. As NGA’s history see that, despite the obstacles to be points out, the U.S. geospatial intelligence overcome, the integration would prove effort began in 1803 when President of inestimable value to our nation. In a Thomas Jefferson sent the Army’s Lewis word, it took leadership, a commodity and Clark expedition to explore and map in sometime short supply. It also took the recently acquired Louisiana Territory. open-mindedness and a dedication to The Army, assisted by its contract civil- the mission on the par t of the workforce. ian scientists, supported the country’s There was, first and foremost, a cultural westward expansion in that era, just as divide that had to be bridged. the Agency’s geospatial products support national goals today. Secrecy was the imagery analysis tradition, inherited from the National Photographic Another cultural chasm to be bridged Interpretation Center. The watchword was was the distinction between being an “need to know” and, above all, “protection intelligence agency vice a part of a of sources and methods.” Imagery came military service, later a defense agency initially from secret spy planes—the U2 dedicated to supporting the military and, later, the SR-71 “blackbird.” Their services. Employees of a civil agency, the

14 15 National Photographic Interpretation “softcopy,” especially when commercial Center, ultimately had either to transfer software offerings integrated vector and to the Department of Defense or give up raster manipulation and display and “GIS” their career specialty and return to the became the “best of breed.” As a testament Central Intelligence Agency. Many of the to the Agency’s digital reach, last spring most talented, the most dedicated officers, a guided missile cruiser, the USS Cape St. weathered the change. They adapted and, George (CG 71) sallied from its home port while nostalgic at times, shifted their in Norfolk, Va., without paper charts on allegiance to the new organization where the bridge. Instead, it used an electronic they helped shape today’s hybrid culture, system with the Agency’s Digital Nautical which incorporates the “best in breed.” Chart (DNC®) as its primary navigational system. Even the defense mapping personnel that NGA inherited comprised not a single The Global Positioning System (GPS), workforce but several, each with its own used by the USS Cape St. George—as work rules, pay scales, legal status and well as by every other military ship and subcultures. Here, too, over time the plane, civil aviation, commercial maritime importance of the mission, coupled with vessel, and many private automobiles and firm leadership and employee dedication, boats—has allowed geospatial products to has eroded much of the distinction. Now, enable or improve nearly every military NGA is well on the way to having one operation. GPS-guided weaponry, such harmonious workforce—a symphony as the Joint Direct Attack Munitions, rather than a cacophony. dramatically changed the nature of modern warfare, reducing by orders of The workforce integration required dras- magnitude the number of munitions tic changes to the information infrastruc- and sorties necessary to destroy a target ture. Computer networks that previously and reducing collateral damage, as well. operated distinct from one another and at More important, it has saved countless different security levels had to be rational- U.S. service persons’ lives by adapting a ized and interoperability achieved. An “strategic” weapon to perform close air infrastructure that supported both had to support. The men and women of NGA, be put in place. Prior to the merger, each justifiably proud of this contribution, daily of the major constituents—the Defense earn the gratitude of every U.S. warrior Mapping Agency and the National and their kin. Photographic Interpretation Center—had computerized important parts of their Not only does GPS add value to NGA’s respective operations. A needed upgrade products, the men and women of the of the original softcopy image-exploitation NGA have contributed materially to capability provided the new Agency with improving the accuracy of GPS and all of the opportunity to include in it a geospatial its applications. They run a set of tracking toolset, anticipating the integration stations which more accurately track the of the imagery analysis and mapping GPS satellites inasmuch as the antenna disciplines. of each tracking station is, itself, more precisely located. Indeed, it is estimated In retrospect the marriage of imagery that NGA knows precisely the distance analysis and mapping was inevitable and direction from their antenna feeds to when man took to the air with a camera the center of the Earth. And, the accuracy and gave mapmakers an alternative is kept up using a model that accounts feedstock to ground surveys. But, another for all the vagaries of time and tide, even propitious omen was the development of continental drift.

16 17 PATHFINDER 17 - loyal men and women of NGA. This is an is This NGA. of women and men loyal Agency that is now “getting it together.” Of course, NGA is not yet perfect—no organization ever is—so its officer, rank and file and leadership, must continue its deftness in meeting the unknowns of tomorrow while enabling the national security today. positions they will perform the better for better the perform will they positions having for substitute no really is There it. lived with those who use your products. Users of the Agency’s productstraditionally have been and the the U.S. foreign intelligence military apparatus. Increasingly important, now and for the home of needs the are future, foreseeable which include land domestic security, as well as support civil needs, foreign as well as military. Of course, NGA has always provided domestic support for national- security events and civil support in the is this as fact, In disasters. major of event being written, NGA is supporting relief providing by Katrina Hurricane for efforts imagery and geospatial productscities the around and in areas for support and Gulfport and Ala. Mobile, Orleans, New of and Biloxi, Miss. the to gratitude of debt a owes nation The on-the-job on-the-job experiences. As the mapping converged, have disciplines imagery and the shrewd employees are the “switch and in, worked have who hitters”—those planning, Workforce crafts. both mastered, retention and continuous improvement are especially important as the Agency tries to iron out the results of an earlier downsizing with an accelerated hiring 2001. Sept. 11, rate in the wake of Among the most visible personnel NGA are of those engaged in outreach—ship riders, those consumerassigned to the military commands, and those who go their forward as and when the need arises. and marks high uniformly get all They Agency should value As this experience. advantage taken have who officers junior leadership senior to rise opportunity this of

- - - - - contributions reduced. Wise employees opportunities these of advantage full take diverse and education classroom both for Today, Today, computer systems have a short times several go and come They half-life. during the tenure of career employees. And, and organizations reconfigure mis sions pro evolve. The workforce is to subjected it expect we and change continual to hearty with NGA, stability. needed the vide invested has endorsement, Congressional in continuous training and retraining, without which employee options would long-term their and restricted severely be GeoScout, which upgrades further enterprise-level its information systems.GeoScout will transform the Agency’s people, processes and operations corporate improving involves technology. It and staff knowledge, skills and abilities, and streamlining the way the personnel do their jobs, tradecraft and practices. To keep it business that GeoScout way, also involves rapid-technology insertion and upgrading. tions of imagery satellites. These would prevent and capacity Agency’s the overtax the U.S. from realizing the full value of those satellite investments. firm urging), (Congressional event the In leadership and a acquisi dedicated strong a has now workforce NGA prevailed. tion corps, of which it Indeed, can the Agency be is proud. embarked on an unparalleled modernization program, Agency and the National Photographic Interpretation Center. In each case, pre- vious upgrades to the formation workhorse systems of its in forebears Reconnaissance were National the by developed Office and/or the DefenseAgency. This lack Mapping of native acquisition capability was particularly worrisome— Intelligence Central of Director the to both Agency the Congress—because the to and genera new two for itself prepare to had NGA NGA inherited limited its acquisition, from capability management, or program constituent parts, the Defense Mapping 16 Technology Challenges in a New World By Mark Schultz, Director, Offfice of Corporate Relations

he game has changed. It will utility matter now more than ever before; continue to change. Combating and utility is only maintained by staying T terrorism, tracking the develop- forever agile. National Security depends ment and proliferation of weapons of mass on the Nation’s ability to make correct destruction, protecting our homeland, decisions faster than our adversaries. and enabling the synthesis, interpretation, Geospatial Intelligence is a critical enabling and visualization of information—all of capability toward that end. Therefore, the this is dramatically increasing the fidelity work and how we perform it must change and mix of content NGA must deliver. In- at the speed of technology. telligence problems have become globally In response, NGA is looking out six hours, diffused—challenging our reach. Targets six days, six months, one year, three years, are smaller, dynamic, and fleeting— ten years, and twenty years. Through the challenging our omni-presence. The employment of tools and technologies adversary is often a non-state actor developed by industry and ourselves we without readily apparent facilities or easily are creating capabilities in near real-time observable signatures—complicating our as we respond to crisis demands from search. And those we do know hide their disaster recovery to terrorist localization. equipment in urban environments, caves, We are expanding our interface to our and underground. They take increasing customers and the world through industri- advantage of concealment and denial and ous arrangements with imagery and web deception—challenging our methods and service providers. And we are engaging means. the most progressive among us to remake The playing field has shifted. It will our approach to technology insertion, continue to shift. The rate of change is advancing our capabilities on time cycles increasing. It will accelerate as the world of months, not years. discovers the power of geospatial intelli- gence to inform information consumption More than On Demand and decision making. NGA support to Access to GEOINT those responding to Katrina demonstrated We set the bar high for ourselves. Opera- that power. Google Earth® and Microsoft tion Iraqi Freedom, the War on Terrorism, Virtual Earth® and other capabilities like and Hurricane Katrina proved the power these, are driving the business of geospatial of GEOINT. Now we must serve it up with intelligence forward by opening a realm a capability equivalent to the strength of its of technical possibilities. content. Demand for our data, knowledge, and service has moved beyond the limita- The rule book has been rewritten. The tions of our web pages. Nothing short of a World Wide Web, commercial and foreign full web services capability will meet the imagery and now, geospatial visualization need. We must take full advantage of our has shifted the symmetry. Adversaries can holdings, our portal and “killer app” like reach, understand and exploit information PalanterraTM. Our objective is to establish content easier than in the past. The previ- and continually mature an enterprise ously hidden and hard to obtain is now interface of loosely coupled and federated available at the click of a mouse. Speed and applications. This requires a fundamental

18 19 R E D N I F H T A P shift in our business approach and mission and immediately adaptable web capability execution. We must migrate interoper- that enhances the power and utility of ability from the data level to the service GEOINT by enabling real-time actionable level. Speed and agility matter. Speed and intelligence. agility can be achieved not by creating the perfect data or remaking the data to meet It’s Not Your Father’s TPED the emerging need but by recombining We must become more than a web service data in new ways to achieve new results. provider. We must move beyond our That is done at the service application heritage approach. When collection assets layer. It is enabled by inter-operable ap- were limited it made sense to make tasking plications and technically smart analysts. job one. Then we only had to readout the Moreover, we can and must enable access imagery to get the intelligence correct. It to databases wherever they reside, to made sense to tightly couple tasking, pro- whoever needs them. Everything we do in cessing, exploitation, and dissemination this service domain must be extensible and (TPED) capability to a specific collection scaleable, employing today’s technology, system. But no more. not yesterday’s. We will take advantage of our labs and usher in a renewed era Speed and agility matter. We can no longer of development that operationalizes rely on a single platform to deliver the new technology at the speed of the need, intelligence necessary to meet the need. It method or mode. All of this is possible and is the complimentary nature of our entire in reach. A first capability is achievable sensor and platform suite that delivers Tracking the development capability. Optimization across this sensor and proliferation of weapons in six months and a full capability in two of mass destruction is years. The end result will be an intuitive and platform suite is key. Conflation must one of the many global occur at the point of optimization. Tipping intelligence challenges facing NGA today.

Photo courtesy of the Department of Energy

18 19 and cueing and informing must be tempo- real-time streaming video and not some rally synchronized. So, when it comes to innocent civilian. We must provide our data and information generation, only a officers with the analytical time to build coverage, web enabled TPED architecture and maintain this expertise. And we must makes operational sense. There is nothing give them the tools to make such work trivial about the challenge of converging efficient. Tools like data mining, Bayesian ongoing programs into our GeoScout ef- belief nets and other predictive analytical fort. It is focused in the area of our business techniques will increase the speed, richness that draws on our deepest scientific and and completeness of our output. mathematical expertise. It requires the most rigorous and often unique, technical Reaching Out — Well Beyond solutions and, programmatic processes Conventional Methods & Means continue to impede end objectives. We Continually building the agility to respond must focus, critically focus, our effort in time, space, and reach is the focus of toward moving the data and information our technical and analytical challenge. generation sector of our business forward. Expanding our access to and employment And we must move it forward in a way of new sensors and platforms will continue that optimizes this technical domain. We to be foundational—first to agility and must do this while enabling existing and second to speed. It is the exploitation emerging sensors to compliment each and conflation of complimentary source other in shorter and shorter conflation capabilities that will enable us to fill the cycles. voids created by the “new game.”

Full stream processing is a key to our Increasingly, we are expanding our sensor, success. It will greatly improve speed spectral, spatial, and temporal diversity. and agility. And, it will require different Agility enabling sources like multi-spec- relationships with our source providers. tral, hyper-spectral, laser and video are We will require upstream processing being complimented by unconventional inserted at the point of optimization and synthetic imagery. These advanced tech- for some functionality, that may be in the niques enable multidimensional views source providers’ part of the image stream. and reveal indicators not normally ap- We need today, and will require tomorrow, parent. Literal interpretation of source sensor-to-sensor cueing. imagery is giving way to non-literal techniques and advanced methods. Ad- Looking down stream, where possible vanced Geospatial Intelligence is bringing we must eliminate the need for analysis, certainty to conclusions that in the past enabling information flow directly from were only probable. the sensor to the situational awareness screen or to the waiting application or to Multi-dimensional pattern recognition the Geospatial-Intelligence Knowledge is emerging as multiple sources and Base (GKB) data layer. Speed matters, advanced methods are applied to difficult we must unburden the analyst from the problems. In time, these techniques will routine of counting or extracting things help the analyst anticipate action, bringing that machines can handle. NGA’s most new problem solving input to the decision critical asset—our talented analytical maker. The confirming value of imagery people, can then be redeployed to the will be enhanced. difficult problems of the new game. It takes New sensors also improve speed and depth deep analytical expertise to know that of holdings by enabling automatic change one is watching a terrorist in a Predator detection, automatic feature extraction,

20 21 R E D N I F H T A P and automatic tipping and cueing. These it is needed. We must design our systems same sensors are filling data voids that in to protect our investment in data and to the past could not even be considered. The enable agility and speed. Shuttle Radar Topography Mission proved this approach. And there are new collection And the Rest of the Story and processing techniques providing data First and foremost, meeting these chal- volumes at rates not previously thought lenges will require people, thinking and achievable. This pace of change will only acting people. NGA’s analysts have an accelerate. immediate critical need for tools and capabilities. Enabling them will spring- Equally important to exploiting existing board their already strong advancement and emerging sensors and platforms is our of GEOINT to meet the challenge of the ability to reach and exploit existing data new game. Developers, engineers and sets. We must be able to pull these data sets scientists have an immediate critical need in or reach out to them with distributed for streamlined processes. Freeing them of computing. Returning conflatable views process drag will enable the thinking time and uses is our aim. Co-registration of to achieve systems designed to change and data with data, data with imagery and greatly accelerate technology insertion. imagery with imagery will continue to be a challenge as open source becomes Even as this admittedly inadequate look an increasingly important contributor at technical challenges is being drafted the and as no-metric platforms continue to game, playing field, and rule book are all proliferate. changing. That rate of change will only accelerate. In the final analysis only the The long term utility of the GKB will be utility of our products and service will determined by its adaptability to emerging matter. And that utility will be built on needs and data types. Data generation is the strength and depth of our science, our expensive, and switching costs associated knowledge, and our information. Enabling with database design must be eliminated. ourselves to meet emerging needs on every In a service approach to problem solving, diminishing timelines is key. data must be available when and where

NGA and USJFCOM to Form Partnership The United States Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM)and NGA have established a partnership to develop Joint Force doctrine, training, and concepts to meet joint warfighter requirements for GEOINT support down to the lowest tactical level, i.e., to the “last tactical mile.” This collaborative approach enables Services and commands to become connected to the National System for Geospatial Intelligence (NSG) and provides improved ways for military members to receive and utilize GEOINT.

The agreement is based on the Joint Geospatial Intelligence Activity (JGA), which is chartered to bring the military Services together to create joint requirements and solutions to enhance GEOINT support among national and tactical users.

USJFCOM is headquartered in Norfolk, Va. and supports military operations around the world.

20 21 DoD photo by Lance Cpl. Justin M. Mason, U.S. Marine Corps. 22 23 GETTING TECHNOLOGY R E D N I F H T A P to the Warfighter By Ed Mornston, Deputy Military Executive

ast winter, I had the privilege understand how GEOINT, a major combat to serve with our geospatial- multiplier, must adapt to the environment L intelligence analysts in Afghani- in which U.S. and coalition forces are stan while they worked side by side operating, and how we should interact with our military partners fighting in the with them to deliver these enhanced Global War on Terrorism. This deployment capabilities. provided me with firsthand insights into our customers’ operations that make me For the purposes of this article, I will focus very passionate about our Agency’s sup- on three thoughts about our military part- port to this war and even more impressed ners and their operations and how these with the capabilities of our analysts and insights should guide NGA on interacting the value they bring to the battlefield. with military commanders and operators in forward-deployed locations. The Global War on Terrorism is well- named because this truly is an epic battle Context Keeps Changing against terrorist networks that are not The first thought is that to bring new limited to a particular region. This war is capabilities to our military partners, we deadly, it is asymmetric and it is rapidly must truly and completely understand Lt. Menuel Zepeda (left) changing. These types of combat opera- the context in which they exist and the and Cpl. Austin Hall (right) tions stretch our military forces both in compare physical features environment in which they operate. Our of the terrain with those on terms of physical demands on soldiers military is fully engaged and very much a topographical map of the and their equipment, but also in terms of region near the Afghanistan/ focused on the deadly fight that consumes Pakistan border. A map is the vision and capabilities needed to fight their attention. The major combat elements one of the many GEOINT against adversaries who operate at the of each of the services have been deployed tools that NGA can deliver to the warfighter. confluence of terrorism, insurgency and into combat at an unrelenting pace for the perhaps weapons of mass destruction. past three years, and there is no end in sight. Our forces are either on their way Geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) to fight, in the fight, or returning from provided by NGA and our part- long and difficult deployments. And, this ners in the National System for fight is new and different. It pits us against Geospatial-Intelligence is a very smart, disciplined enemy that is absolutely critical on the causing our military to rapidly adapt and battlefield. But, to be then readapt. truly supportive of the warfighter We must keep at the front of our minds and remain that the military is paying a dear price in so, NGA this war in terms of loss of life and limb needs to and that these sacrifices are always very much on the minds of our warfighters. Knowing that our military partners are very desirous of any capability that will help in this

22 23 DoD photo by Spc. Harold Fields, U.S. Army Soldiers establish a security perimeter after exiting a U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook fight in the future, but very much focused is even harder as a national Agency that helicopter during a Quick Reactionn Force exercise at on current operations is an important piece is largely based in the continental United the East River Range near element of situational awareness that we States. Bagram, Afghanistan. To win the War On Terror, both the must keep in mind about our partners. warfighter and NGA must be Working to develop an understanding aggressive in their persuit of Need to Share Capabilities of our partners is necessary because, in mission excellence. general, they need help in being able to The second thought is that we must deter- communicate effectively with us about mine, working closely with our military their needs. In essence, warriors don’t customers, what capability they truly need know what they don’t know about GEO- and will make them more effective. The INT, and we are in the same situation about challenge with this is that neither party setting up a snap traffic control point in has a firm grasp of how to work in each Ar Ramdi, Iraq or raiding a suspected ter- other’s sphere of influence. rorist compound in Khowst, Afghanistan. At NGA, we need to fully understand the Only by working together can we get into operational environment and doctrinal each other’s space to understand how to principles by which our forces fight. As bring greater capability to the fight. mentioned above, this war is very different from others in which we have fought, and is Stand-Alone Solutions Inadequate further complicated by the speed at which My third thought is that pure and stand- new techniques and innovative methods alone technology solutions are difficult to are introduced to the battlefield by both integrate into a situation in which military friendly and threat forces. Understanding forces are concentrating on other fights. We the dynamics of this war is not easy, and should strive to deliver a well-packaged

24 25 R E D N I F H T A P capability that can be added to ongoing managing all aspects of our interactions operations without major disruption. with the commands, must not only be For instance, a hardware or software consulted with on technology issues, they upgrade, new tool or new concept should must concur that bringing a capability be matched with the concept of operations and proposing it to a customer is the right by which it will work, a detailed training thing to do and fits into the command’s package, a maintenance plan, and all of battle rhythm. The NSTs must be the the other elements that make using the clearinghouse for all technology ideas and new capability “user friendly.” enhancements that we propose.

These three points lead us to conclude Stryker Brigade Debriefing that NGA must become extremely well- A great example of interacting with a organized and coherent, and compel us to warfighter who brings the situational present our ideas in a tight, focused manner awareness that is crucial to NGA occurred that will make warfighers more effective recently when NGA had an opportunity and capable. Approaching a military cus- to debrief Army Chief Warrant Officer tomer with a less than fully coordinated, Jason Feser, topographic chief in the 1st thought-out idea at this point is not helpful Brigade, 25th Infantry Division. Currently and may not be well received. operating in Iraq, this unit was one of the Working Through NSTs is Key first two brigades to make the transition into the lighter, more mobile Stryker Our view into the warfighters’ true needs Combat Vehicles. Our discussion with should be through our forward-deployed Chief Feser resulted from a long-standing personnel, NGA Support Teams (NSTs), relationship that was established through and the regional and functional offices in the Army NST at Fort Lewis, Wash. and the Production and Analysis Directorate the Future Warfare Systems Office of who are linked directly to military forces. NGA’s InnoVision Directorate. It included We need to leverage the knowledge that approximately 100 NGA personnel from we gain as an Agency from having people the InnoVision Directorate, U.S. Central forward and a Production and Analysis Command reach-back team, Office of element that works with the customer Central and Southwest Asia, NGA College, on a daily basis. They are shoulder to Military Executive and others. shoulder with those whom we are trying to understand and support. The knowledge Chief Feser brought to us a feel for the that is gained from living and working battlefield, the role of GEOINT, and the in the same time zone and operating challenges in serving the operators and conditions as our partners, and walking trigger-pullers, who, he reminded us, are in their combat boots, is a very unique, the real customers. Many of Chief Feser’s invigorating experience, and one that gives discussion points centered on challenges us insights into their needs. related to dissemination, data standards and data content. The key to bringing a coherent and well-targeted plan for enhanced GEOINT Imperatives for GEOINT capabilities to those who are very busy is When we think about what warfighters to work through our NGA Support Teams need in terms of enhanced capabilities, the that have a full-time, enduring, deep re- issue of bridging the “last tactical mile” lationship with the combatant commands is near the top of most discussions. Com- and units in the field. Our NSTs, as our manders and operators on the ground may Agency’s element that is charged with not use these words, but when we listen

24 25 developed and is known by NGA experts. We need to match our business model to the collaborative tools and processes that exist and are being used by military commands. This will allow us to bring the entire NGA enterprise into the fight. Many commanders in our military are struck with the growing realization that our network must be better than the terrorist’s network and we must share all information accurately and quickly if we are to prevail in this fight.

In my estimation, the greatest capability we can provide to those who are fighting is the full range of NGA’s existing GEOINT expertise that resides in our analysts and DoD photo by Spc. Harold Fields, U.S. Army workforce who are not forward- deployed. A U.S. Army soldier brings up the rear while on a Because many commands are becoming dismounted patrol high in closely to what they are describing, many more reliant on GEOINT and are increas- the mountains of Nowabab, ingly innovative in how they employ Afghanistan. Understanding times the challenges involve dissemina- the environment in which tion. Getting high-end, dense GEOINT our tradecraft in combination with the the military operates helps power of other intelligence disciplines, NGA analysts provide better into the hands of “disadvantaged users” intelligence to those who who are well forward on the battlefield the proactive engagement and push of serve in harm’s way. is the issue that many commanders feel ideas, expertise and products from our is the next big step in GEOINT support home-station analysts is crucial. This can to operations. happen because the ability now exists to connect analysts at different NGA sites to At higher levels of command, an improved personnel in the field with the customer. capability for persistent surveillance, new sensor types and new exploitation It is crucial that at NGA we get this right. techniques are often mentioned as I believe that the key to developing and desired capabilities. New sensor types integrating GEOINT capabilities lies in (phenomenologies) will greatly expand the our intense study of those whom we want spectrum of radiant sources. Combining to help, and in a very tightly organized these new sources with new exploitation plan to integrate these capabilities into techniques will allow us to steal secrets in their operations. NGA is performing current and future combat environments. magnificently on the battlefield with our However, as we think about making our warfighting partners. Our analysts and military forces more capable, we must keep other members of our workforce are true in mind that technology is not a panacea heroes and recognized as such in the field. and must always be developed in concert We must learn from their experiences. It is with our people and processes. necessary that we continue to aggressively enable our military forces to win this fight Tapping into the Workforce because our foes are targeting our families Much of the information that is critical and our freedoms. to victory on the battlefield has been

26 27 National System for GEOINT Aims R E D N I F H T A P to Eliminate Barriers By John Doty, Joe Klimavicz and Jennifer Lafley

ntelligence Community (IC) leaders NGA’s Enterprise Operations Director- have made it clear that there must ate is working in partnership with the I be much more information sharing Acquisition Directorate, Security and across organizational and functional lines. Installation Operations Directorate and At the same time, the efforts of NGA core contractors to evolve a holistic enter- analysts, customers and partners are too prise infrastructure that ensures fail-safe often slowed by navigation through vari- business continuity and processing on ous systems, procedures and functions to demand across the NSG. That transformed gather information before actually doing infrastructure will be fully digital, self- their work. aware, self-reporting, self-healing and self-sustaining. Users will have self-service To maximize the availability of data and instant, real-time access to geospatial and capabilities, the transformation of intelligence (GEOINT). the National System for Geospatial- Intelligence (NSG) is, before anything Replacing old infrastructure and improv- else, an integration function. It is also ing access to information services comes preparation for an environment in which first. Several projects under way to: much more source data is available to analysts and users. Modernize administrative and secure phone systems, ensuring that every A key transformational change in NGA desk has a phone with voice mail and business operations is the consolidation all secure phones are interoperable of contracts for system processes and with IC partners; functions. With a prime contractor and Recapitalize desktop workstations team of subcontractors, existing systems on a four-year cycle (and laptops are integrated with each other and future on an as-needed basis) to guarantee NSG elements. The consolidated contract cost-effective, reliable employee vehicle for the acquisition of systems and productivity; their integration into a larger national Automate problem reporting through system is called GeoScout. The contract automatic call distribution in which vehicle to consolidate operations and callers with specific problems are sustainment of systems, technology and referred to the appropriate experts services is called Information Technology/ through automated telephone or Web Information Services. options; Infrastructure Comes First Improve NGANet inter-building NGA’s Information Technology Strategic reliability and availability through a Plan outlines clear, comprehensive, enter- network stabilization initiative; prise-wide strategies. As NGA implements Establish robust, high-speed campus the plan, the Agency is shifting from tightly networks to support increased col- coupled, inflexible hardware, software lection capacities and reliability and data systems to open systems that requirements; allow applications to “ride” across a core infrastructure.

26 27 The NGA Help Desk assists employees with tecchnology issues. Callers will soon be referred to the appropriate experts through automated telephone or web options.

Consolidate data storage into two data who develop requirements and control centers and migrate holdings from processes, and program managers who various sites to those centers, reduc- deliver system elements through acquisi- ing cost, providing redundancy and tion projects. As manager of the GeoScout ensuring continuity of operations; contract, the Acquisition Directorate is Develop and implement automated directly accountable for delivery of the problem detection and resolution for transformed NSG with critical attention to the NSG infrastructure; cost, schedule, performance and risk.

Enhance the performance of legacy Because the transformation is a monu- production systems. mental task, GeoScout delivers integrated capability in sets or blocks (and increments A related component of the NSG objective of blocks). In Block 1, the focus is on architecture is access. The NGA Portal—the upgrading NGA and NSG infrastructure first step toward collaboration across the as necessary to support subsequent NSG—provides access to GEOINT through integration efforts. Block 1 deliveries Web-based multiple-security-level servers. are well under way, with increments on Integrating existing and new content, the schedule for installation and integration. NGA Portal will become the single entry Achievement of these Block 1 successes point for customer and user access to NGA has been possible only through close information and services. coordination between Enterprise Opera- Managing the Transformation tions and Acquisition in a joint unit that oversees infrastructure development. The Acquisition Directorate is home to contracting officers who administer In Block 2, the focus is on managing contracts throughout NGA, engineers information and its sources (the holdings

28 29 R E D N I F H T A P and source elements of the objective InnoVision personnel have designed a architecture). The delivery of prototype flexible technology-insertion process to capabilities in the next year will allow the accommodate the great variety of tech- NSG community to participate in their nologies that flow into the baseline. The development. These near-term prototypes path and speed by which a capability is involve several key areas: inserted depend on such factors as type of technology, target-user environment, and Visualization—the capability to over- urgency of need. Decisions on technology- lay various information sets onto a insertion investments are made by a Rapid geospatially referenced base and apply Innovation Council. For more information various tools to the analysis process, about the Council, read the separate article Needs management—the generation in this issue. and decomposition of intelligence information needs through the inte- A key effort is the Geospatial-Intelligence gration of tools that identify discrete Knowledge (GKB), featured in the requirements, January-February 2005 Pathfinder. The GKB is part of a larger concept— Workflow management—the use of Knowledge Management (see sidebar on new and existing capabilities to create page 30). transformation workflows, especially in the production and discovery of NSG End State GEOINT. Collaboration, a key component of analy- In Block 3, the NSG will approach its sis, will increase opportunities for subject objective architecture, or end state. matter experts to engage across national, agency and discipline lines. Elements of Inserting Emerging Technologies collaboration introduced in GeoScout NGA Director retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Blocks 1 and 2 will mature as they move James R. Clapper Jr. has created an Industry toward the NSG final form. Interaction Program to ensure appropriate In GeoScout Block 3, the NSG will ap- access for companies to introduce their proach its steady state—transformed to capabilities and new technologies. The respond at a faster operational tempo to program provides a formal, disciplined the larger volumes of data available and process for interaction with industry and the evolved needs of the GEOINT com- ensures consistency in approach across munity. The GKB—engine of the integrated the Agency. information environment—will be fully As NGA’s proponent for research and operational. Persistent surveillance—con- development, the InnoVision Directorate tinual monitoring and collection—will surveys emerging technologies, methods enable the NSG to operate at an entire and capabilities in GEOINT and allied new level of effectiveness. And emerging fields and identifies key candidates for in- technologies will have an avenue for clusion in the NSG. Directorate personnel insertion into the national system. work closely with the GeoScout program on various initiatives to insert emerging capabilities into the transformed NSG.

28 29 Knowledge Management and the GKB By Danielle Forsyth Knowledge management (KM) is a broadly used term without universal agreement on its definition. The term is used to describe everything from traditional document management and lessons- learned databases to automated capture and reuse of tacit knowledge.

The key purpose of KM is to help an organization effectively leverage ever-growing assets, including intellectual capital. KM does this by capturing and sharing information, experience, expertise and insights, promoting collaboration, and providing broad access to the organi- zation’s information assets without regard to their source or structure. A true KM system tracks the context and relationships among the data and information so they can be rapidly understood and acted upon.

NGA’s Geospatial Intelligence Knowledge Base prototype (GKB-p) is embracing emerging KM technologies to allow users to describe their communities of interest, to subscribe to automated alerts and notifications, to save data and knowledge in an “electronic shoebox” and to notify communities when projects or findings are published. It will also help analysts to identify non-obvious connections, capture and share knowledge, facilitate analysis through advanced visualization, and track processes so that “recipes” can be re-used to pose and test hypotheses.

KM should not be a separate process on an isolated system. Instead, it should provide users with ubiquitous access to data and knowledge through known and trusted applications,

allowing access to critical data and knowledge that exists both within and outside the Intelligence Community for analysis and decision-making.

Knowledge tools will work seamlessly with today’s data and systems. At the same time, seam- less transition between traditional applications and new advanced visualization capabilities are at the core of the NGA KM philosophy. Analysts will be able to navigate through changing knowledge structures and view data and knowledge in familiar or new applications or services.

Visualization tools will provide multi-dimensional views for analysis and understanding and support the rapid identification and annotation of patterns, connections and relationships.

Analysts need access to data, knowledge, experience and expertise. KM at NGA is focused on breaking down barriers so that analysts can capture knowledge, index and search through

a wide range of client types.

Analysts are set to begin testing the GKB-p in October. This testing will be done by a business- process re-engineering team that has worked closely with developers from the early days of the project.

30 31 Council Ensures Rapid R E D N I F H T A P Technology Insertion By Colby Harmon

aking advantage of the accelerat- of NGA funds that have specifically been ing pace of advancing technology set aside to enable technology-insertion T requires an equally rapid means activities related to the initial implementa- of assessing and deploying innovations tion and sustainment of new, high-value as they emerge. NGA has established a innovations. Rapid Innovation Council (RIC) to meet this challenge. The RIC Support Team recommends spe- cific technology insertions after assessing Endorsing the plan for standing up the the maturity, suitability and other factors RIC, NGA Director retired Air Force Lt. related to individual technology-insertion Gen. James R. Clapper Jr. said, “I am very candidates. Co-chaired by the Deputy committed to strengthening the manner in Technical Executive and the NGA Chief which we manage innovation.” Architect, the Support Team has broad representation from Agency organiza- The RIC is a formal cross-directorate tions involved in planning, developing, executive forum chaired by the Technical acquiring, implementing and sustaining Executive and comprised of the line- new technologies. A Technology Assess- organization directors, the Military Execu- ment Group comprised of enterprise tive, the Financial engineering contractors conducts rigorous Management Di- assessments of each proposed innovation rectorate and the “I am very committed to for the Support Team. strengthening the manner in Office of Geospa- tial Management. By improving NGA’s effectiveness in which we manage innovation.” The Council is carrying out the technology insertion, the governance the RIC is shortening the time from an mechanism for innovation’s discovery to its first use in prioritizing and providing resources for operations. Equally important is the act of emerging technologies and other innova- identifying shortfalls in NGA capabilities tions that could not have been accounted that will most affect the Agency’s ability for within the Agency’s two-year program to serve its customers now and in the planning cycle. future. One of the tools being developed to support gap analysis is the NSG Capability The innovation expenditures being made Roadmap, which links identified capabil- by the RIC are generally required within ity needs to resource allocations. Another 6-18 months. In the past, funding for insert- important ongoing development is the ing break-through innovations had to be Enterprise Technology Roadmap, which reallocated from other planned efforts. will link candidate technology insertions The RIC now manages the distribution to capability needs.

30 31 NGA Improves JPEG2000 Performance for GEOINT By Alec Klatchko

he volume and diversity of infrastructure integration in a cost- geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) effective manner that preserves criti- T data is rapidly multiplying. cal metrics for quality, timeliness and Vastly greater numbers of pixels are being performance. produced from an increasing variety of sources ranging from National Technical IEC Program Takes Lead Means to commercial satellite imagery to NGA’s Integrated Exploitation Capabil- handheld collectors and more. Further ity (IEC) Program and its contractor, complicating the situation are the many Lockheed Martin Corp., have taken a different formats of image data being leadership role in introducing JPEG2000 produced—gray scale, color, multiband to IEC customers and vendors. The IEC and more. is a large digital information exploitation system that relies on current and emerging On the other end of the imagery thread, the commercial technology. It replaced aged number of end-users is increasing due to government-built digital and film-based the availability of affordable, high-quality imagery processing and analysis systems imagery exploitation systems based on that used specialized software coupled open-standard commercial off-the-shelf with engineered hardware. products. NGA’s diverse customers range from imagery scientists conducting highly IEC Program engineers assisted vendors detailed scientific analyses to customers in developing a JPEG2000 capability into who can accommodate only small subsets their product lines. At the same time, they of original data due to system and connec- adapted JPEG2000 to IEC performance tion limitations. standards to ensure smooth functioning of the exploitation chain with the new In an effort to address the volume and image-compression format. MITRE, a diversity of imagery, Congress in 2001 not-for-profit company chartered to work directed NGA to take the lead in develop- solely in the public interest, provided ing imagery infrastructures to exploit the expertise in JPEG2000, and the government opportunities provided by an emerging National Imagery Transmission Format data compression standard: the Joint Standards Technical Board provided Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) 2000 expertise in standards management. compression format. In the commercial world, JPEG2000 product lines promise to Following an exhaustive assessment of ap- hold a very large presence. Existing imag- plicable commercial off-the-shelf products, ery compression formats had previously program managers selected Unisearch’s addressed the issues of size, diversity and Kakadu tools as the best fit for the needed volume. However, these formats can only tasks. Kakadu is a product of Dr. David be applied ad hoc and do not allow NGA Taubman of the University of New South to achieve infrastructure integration. Wales in Australia.

With JPEG2000, NGA has expanded The structure of JPEG2000 accommodates the methods of managing, distributing many choices on decode (converting and exploiting GEOINT data to achieve the image from a compressed state to

32 33 R E D N I F H T A P greatly improved JPEG2000 performance.

Sensor Systems, the manu- facturer of the Electronic Light Table, RemoteView Pro, accelerated the implementa- tion of Kakadu. A company team was able to demon- strate operational workflows against very large JPEG2000 images essentially identical to non-JPEG2000 encoded data. Demonstrations of the light-table prototype at last year’s IEC Users Conference resulted in very positive user comments, many noting the capability for fast and smooth Photo by Rob Cox roams. The Integrated Exploitation Capability (IEC) is a large Some JPEG2000 issues remain digital information exploitation a viewable state) which IEC explored system that relies on current ahead of NGA. The great strength of the and emerging commercial analytically and through benchmarking. IEC Program is the ability to apply widely technology. IEC Program The results enabled IEC engineers to direct engineers assisted vendors available products and technologies to in developing a JPEG2000 performance improvements in the decode the specialized needs of our end-users capability into their sequence to vastly improve the visual while facilitating the strategic goals and product lines. rendering of imagery with a smooth and transformation of NGA. continuous roam. The IEC leverages progress made in the Software Providers Benefit WindowsTM realm to deliver cost effec- Early analysis and benchmarks revealed tive-solutions for JPEG2000 performance, that the originally intended form of especially with the state-of-the-art dual JPEG2000 imagery was not suitable to a Xeon CPU workstations, high-speed timely and robust exploitation of large buffers, and high-end graphics cards. JPEG2000 images. The IEC and MITRE Unfortunately, a similar JPEG2000 techno- engineers jointly discovered that by logical performance solution on the UNIX rearranging the compressed form of the baseline is not currently available. The IEC JPEG2000 code stream to a more efficient Program is recapping all IEC-provided progression-ordering sequence, the UNIX workstations to Windows worksta- required performance was achievable. tions, with a completion date of Sept. 30, This solution identified required changes 2006 projected. to Kakadu. The changes were relayed to GEOINT exploitation is now well-postured Taubman, who refined Kakadu with dra- for the forthcoming JPEG2000 change in matic results. IEC engineers then shared the community’s imagery architecture. their results with the commercial software providers, who were able to demonstrate

32 33 Our Heritage New Look at Vietnam War Support By Dr. Martin K. Gordon

he Corporate History Branch re- Army Map Service (AMS), Aeronautical cently completed the first exhibit Chart and Information Center (ACIC) T on the Vietnam War for the NGA and National Photographic Interpretation Museum in St. Louis. Before preparation Center (NPIC) collected data and prepared of this exhibit, there were no accounts that analyses for that region. outlined the contributions of all of NGA’s During the tense summer of 1954, there was predecessor organizations to American a strong possibility of U.S. intervention to participation in that war. NGA now has a help the French in their fight for control record of the work done back then, thanks against the Communist Viet Minh after to the participation of several retirees: the fall of Dien Bien Phu. AMS provided Al Anderson, Charles Bates, Wells Huff, analyses of the terrain around the cities Richard Randall and Vance Sprague. of Hanoi and Saigon in case the United Just as today’s intelligence operations re- States intervened. Air Force reconnaissance photography of the Hanoi quire close collaboration by NGA with oth- The United States did not intervene, railroad and highway bridge, er intelligence agencies, the contributions taken in May 1968, shows but interest in that region continued to repair work under way on spans of several organizations were involved in grow. destroyed before a month-old preparing for and supporting our nation’s bombing halt. In the upper right are two temporary pontoon participation in the Vietnam War. Long Division of the country followed the French bridges for foot and motor traffic. before the United States formally became Organizations that preceded defeat in 1954. In the late 1950s and into NGA supported the American militarily engaged in Southeast Asia, the the 1960s, contractors assisted the AMS in war effort with many new methods and products. Bethesda, Md., with aerial photography, and the agency sent survey parties into the region. As a result, AMS created the first accurate maps of Vietnam.

In 1959 President Dwight Eisenhower asked for U-2 missions in Vietnam and the surrounding region and tasked NPIC in Washington, D.C., to study the resultant photographs. NPIC analysts began visits to the region to study and report on the growing conflict between North and South Vietnam. By 1962 NPIC analysts were conducting bomb-damage assess- ments, identifying possible targets, seeing through enemy deceptions and producing a number of intelligence assessments.

As demands for targeting information grew, along with American involvement on the side of South Vietnam, ACIC in St. Louis deployed a new database targeting system. It enabled attacking American

34 35 R E D N I F H T A P standardized names were published to meet various requirements.

Meanwhile, the Army Map Service adapted the land-based, low-frequency Long Range Navigation (LORAN) system to record the location of aerially seeded sensors being dropped to help allied forces interdict North Vietnamese supply and troop movements into South Vietnam. At the same time, AMS provided its traditional mapping support to the Army.

As for Navy involvement, it was evident by November 1965, shortly after our first ground combat troops landed, that coastal charts for South Vietnam, based on Japa- nese hydrography from World War II, were unreliable, particularly in the river deltas. Consequently, over the next three years the Naval Oceanographic Office completed comprehensive geodetic, coastal and har- bor surveys of that complex coastline using a series of survey vessels. Among these A truck convoy heads south toward the South Vietnam were the USS Maury, USS Tanner, USS border in January 1968, days and allied pilots to more accurately hit Serrano, USS Sheldrake and USS Towhee. before the Tet offensive. targets and avoid Communist air defenses. In addition, during December 1966, the Exploiting SR-71 photography sent to St. Naval Oceanographic Office established a Louis, analysts would identify the exact branch office in Saigon to provide updated coordinates of newly found targets and nautical charts and publications for use send that information back to Vietnam for by local fleet and Marine Corps units in action. The process took an hour. their blockade, interdiction and naval air support actions. Increasing American military involvement required accurate information about the As the war moved toward a conclusion, names of natural and cultural features in the Department of Defense probed for that country and adjoining countries for ways of saving money. At the same time, application to maps and charts and for the military services’ use of digital and overall operational purposes. The U.S. satellite technology for mapping, charting Board on Geographic Names (BGN), and geodesy continued to grow. Both to headquartered in the Interior Department, save money and to better exploit these provided guidelines for standardizing new tools, the Department of Defense such names. The AMS survey parties merged the services’ mapping organiza- collected names data in the field for tions, establishing the Defense Mapping topographic maps of Vietnam and other Agency in 1972. countries, and similar staffs at the Naval NGA’s Vietnam War exhibit will be open Oceanographic Office and ACIC provided to the public. Watch the NGA home page names for nautical and aeronautical charts, at www.nga.mil for information as it respectively. Country gazetteers with becomes available.

34 35 21st Century AGI Holds Promise for Essential Change By Mike Geggus

ur adversaries have learned structured method for the refutation or much about what we can see and confirmation of hypotheses that explain O hear, and they have taken steps observed phenomena. to overcome many traditional intelligence- gathering capabilities. Quick, quiet and Already, NGA has expanded its use of the hidden, our adversaries have capabilities electromagnetic spectrum by increasing that enable them to warn each other about the information content from existing reconnaissance efforts we undertake and sources, such as synthetic aperture radar thwart our follow-up actions through (SAR) and electro-optical (EO) systems. denial and deception. SAR provides detailed results like those obtained with a large antenna by tracking The Weapons of Mass Destruction Com- the movement between airborne radar mission appointed by President George pulses. W. Bush warned that the Intelligence Community’s “effectiveness will continue This expansion promises to continue with to decline in the coming years unless the planned addition of government and concerted change occurs.” commercial sensors that are enabling greater exploitation of signal characteris- NGA recognized this trend long before tics, improved spectral characterization the commission report and refocused on and, with Light Detection And Ranging geospatial intelligence (GEOINT). NGA (LIDAR), capabilities in the optical region is changing. that mirror those of SAR systems.

A key part of this transformation is the With the long-dwell and loitering capa- incorporation of advanced geospatial bilities of Overhead Non-imaging Infrared intelligence (AGI) into the foundation of (ONIR) and airborne AGI platforms, our business. Formerly known as imagery- NGA is leading the charge with persistent derived measurement and signatures surveillance. ONIR has provided continu- intelligence (imagery-derived MASINT), ous worldwide satellite-based surveillance AGI is the technical, geospatial and and warning of ballistic-missile launches intelligence information derived through for over 30 years. The Director of National interpretation or analysis using advanced Intelligence recently assigned ONIR to processing of all data collected by imagery NGA. or imagery-related collection systems. NGA gained responsibility for AGI from Now is the time for NGA to unleash the the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2002. full potential of AGI, along with ONIR, throughout the Intelligence Community. AGI is prompting the Intelligence Commu- nity to reevaluate existing approaches to AGI Is Crucial Element the collection, analysis and dissemination An AGI-enabled GEOINT adds depth to of GEOINT. This new discipline exploits precisely understand our environment and formalized processes to describe phenom- to remotely monitor dynamic world events. ena and make predictions. It provides a An energized workforce of GEOINT-savvy

36 37 R E D N I F H T A P analysts is bringing the National System will the absence of signature data impact for Geospatial-Intelligence (NSG) to the the analyst’s assessment? realization of full-spectrum operations. Analysts need to ask themselves if they The Office of Advanced Geospatial Intel- have considered all regions of the electro- ligence welcomes the direct, active support magnetic spectrum. They must consider of NGA analysts and our production how to layer AGI with other forms of partners throughout the NSG in further GEOINT in their analysis and reporting. developing the AGI tradecraft. While And they are shifting their thinking from members of the Office of AGI have AGI- concentrating on high-resolution literal specific training, analysts with specialized products to the intrinsic value of non- expertise—whether it is weapons of mass traditional source data. destruction, counterterrorism or specific regional issues—have the expertise to The shift from a “product” rich enterprise integrate AGI into routine analysis and to a “data” rich environment provides production. avenues for discovery. By combining established technical data, processes The integration of AGI is changing how and product standards with AGI data, we think and approach problems. Success processes and standards, technologists can requires analysts to understand what uncover new ways to manipulate data and physical phenomenology is associated pave the way for additional capabilities. with the essential elements of information necessary for accurate assessments. For ex- The importance of AGI is not founded on ample, if an analyst is monitoring a target, simply what it is, but what it promises to what materials does the analyst expect to be. Our challenge is to unlock our think- be present? Can these materials provide a ing, to understand what we can do to signature that can be detected with collec- advance GEOINT in this domain. All who tion assets that the analyst can task? How practice the GEOINT tradecraft have an will the presence of a particular signature opportunity to influence the vision and impact the confidence of the analyst’s the outcome. intelligence estimate? Conversely, how

ONIR Is Now Part of GEOINT By John Morris, Director, GEOINT-ONIR Transition Office Overhead Non-imaging Infrared (ONIR) has been around for 35 years operationally. It provides 24x7 surveillance of the entire Earth to detect and warn the nation of ballistic missile launches. The intelligence applications were previously assigned to the Central MASINT Organization and later assumed by the Defense Intelligence Agency.

The system was originally designed to detect “big bright events” and report very quickly—in seconds. Over time, the capability has improved in spatial capability, as well as in data fidelity overall.

Due to these improvements and the need to expand the customer products to the full potential of the new collection systems, the Director of National Intelligence reassigned the Intelligence Community management responsibility from DIA to NGA in July 2005. NGA is standing up a GEOINT-ONIR Transition Office (GTO) to manage these new responsibilities.

36 37 Industry Small Companies Help NGA Make a Difference By John Findley

mall technology companies Two initial proposals that test the have much to offer,” says Nancy scientific, technical and commercial S Groves, NGA Small Business merit and feasibility of a particular Innovation Research (SBIR) Program concept, and Manager. NGA participates in the program Two advanced proposals that build to make sure their contributions are not upon the success and merits of initial overlooked. Intelligence agencies are not awards to develop commercially required to participate, and NGA is the marketable prototypes. only intelligence agency in the program. The InnoVision Directorate, through its “Studies and anecdotal evidence tell Basic and Applied Research Office, man- us that small firms have a number of ages SBIR for NGA. The Office solicits advantages over large firms when it research topics representing Agency comes to innovation: greater flexibility, interests, provides guidance for partici- closer contact with customers and greater pants, and monitors accepted proposals. willingness to engage in high-risk research The program is completely unclassified, and development projects,” says Daniel O. allowing a wide range of vendors to Hill, Assistant Administrator for Technol- compete for contracts. Outreach activities ogy, U.S. Small Business Administration. are designed to introduce the program to “These qualities have made small firms the small businesses owned by women and leaders in industrial innovation, producing minorities. more innovations per employee and per dollar spent on research and development Following completion of an advanced than larger firms.” proposal, small companies are expected to obtain funding from the private sector However, the risk and expense of conduct- and/or non-SBIR government sources to ing research and development is beyond develop the concept into a product for the means of many small businesses. By sale in the private sector and/or military funding the critical startup and develop- markets. ment stages, SBIR enables small businesses to compete on the same level as larger SBIR successes businesses. At the same time, the SBIR For the government as a whole, success program stimulates the U.S. economy in the SBIR program is measured by how by encouraging the commercialization many awards evolve into commercial of technology, products and services of products. small businesses. For NGA, success is also measured by How SBIR works at NGA the impact and effect of SBIR awards on NGA recognizes the value offered from the transformation of the defense and small innovative entrepreneurial compa- intelligence communities to meet current nies and sets aside funds annually for: and future challenges.

38 39 R E D N I F H T A P The following SBIR awards illustrate how generate worldwide coverage of DTED® the program enables transformational Level 2 between 60 degrees north latitude research to meet tomorrow’s challenges: and 56 degrees south latitude. DTED® is a principal product of NGA.) Full-Spectrum Sensors. Essex Corp. is using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to Physical Optics has developed a software investigate the creation of three-dimen- package that can generate DTED® Level sional imagery that could be used to detect 2 from declassified Russian TK-350 and manmade objects like buildings. SAR KVR-1000 satellite imagery. Users will provides detailed be able to plug the data into commercial results, like those software packages. Although focused “An important strategy for our obtained with a on using the declassified Russian source research program in InnoVision large antenna material, the project can also use other is to reach out and engage by tracking the sources. Commercialization of this product the best minds with our most movement be- allows NGA an alternative data source to daunting challenges. The SBIR tween airborne populate its data holdings and provide radar pulses. The data users with a potentially inexpensive program provides us with an investigation in- source for terrain data. important channel for doing volves the use this by providing access to of tomography Information Extraction and Transport Inc. is helping users of geographic information the innovation capacity of in a technique systems to measure the reliability of eleva- small companies.” similar to medi- cal CAT scans tion data from multiple sources, among —Dr. H. Gregory Smith, that combine a se- several technological advances developed NGA Chief Scientist ries of “slices” to under an SBIR award from NGA. The produce a three- technology has immediate application for dimensional pic- rapid integration of terrain data to support ture of the body. In one of many potential crisis operations. applications, users interactively retrieve Persistent Surveillance. The NAVSYS information about three-dimensional Corp. has developed a software platform, models stored in a geographic information built on an existing Army-sponsored system. SBIR, that integrates Global Positioning Vexcel Corp. is also using SAR tomography System inertial and digital camera data. to penetrate forest canopies and character- Called GI-Eye, the product can be used ize both the foliage and underlying terrain. in both airborne and ground vehicles to In this project, multiple data collections of locate and geo-register geographic features the same scene over a large range of radar and collect attributes about them, among wavelengths are being used to create true, other applications. The company has three-dimensional, volumetric images. commercialized the system and delivered it to NGA for rapid surveying, targeting, GEOINT Knowledge Base. Physical intelligence, surveillance and reconnais- Optics Corp. has a project to inexpensively sance applications. generate Digital Terrain Elevation Data ® Next-Generation Analytical Tools. (DTED ) Level 2 above 60 degrees north Areté latitude, filling a critical gap. (Level 2 Associates is using advanced algorithms provides elevation data at a resolution of with modeling and simulation techniques 30 meters (98 feet). NASA’s space shuttle to passively detect targets concealed in 2000 gathered data that NGA used to by foliage, clouds, or haze. The project

38 39 uses an inertially stabilized skyball with have ideas for a research topic, please con- multi-channel visible and infrared tact NGA’s SBIR manager, Nancy Groves, sensors for remotely piloted long-range at (703) 735-3097 or visit the NGA SBIR web surveillance. This capability has geospatial site at http://www.nga.mil/sbir. applications in both ocean and terrestrial surveillance. In addition to NGA, 11 federal departments and agencies annually participate in the Applied Signal and Imagery Technology SBIR program by designating research Inc. has developed algorithms that auto- and development topics, soliciting pro- matically and accurately detect targets in posals and granting awards. Additional hyperspectral imagery, while providing information regarding these agencies a cost-effective solution for high-volume and research topics can be found at the processing. The company is developing following Web sites: software prototypes that are compatible The Department of Defense: with existing NGA tools and enhance detection capabilities for various types of http://www.dodsbir.net/ signatures involving chemical and other The Small Business Administration: targets of interest. http://www.sbaonline.sba.gov/SBIR/

Visit Our Web Site InnoVision encourages employees and organizations to take advantage of this inventive and energizing program. If you

Securing the NAVSYS camera in preparation for a target positioning test

© NAVSYS Corporation

40 41 R E D N I F H T A P Partnerships NGA and DARPA Collaborate on ‘Hard Problems’ By Matt Reiner

GA and the Defense Advanced and future geospatial-intelligence mission Research Projects Agency (DAR- challenges.” N PA) held a joint symposium Sept. 7 to solicit input from industry and Projects will be jointly funded and man- academia to solve NGA’s hard problems aged by both agencies, and NGA will serve and enable the Agency’s transformation as the technology transition partner. objectives. DARPA Director Dr. Tony Tether and NGA The demand for GEOINT continues to Director retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James R. grow in response to the global war on Clapper Jr. co-hosted the joint symposium terrorism, changing dynamics on the for industry and academic professionals. modern battlefield, natural disasters and The workshop focused on NGA’s hard support to the Department of Defense, problems, which will be jointly pursued Department of Homeland Security and under the partnership. Intelligence Community. This increased Directors of NGA line organizations demand requires NGA to task, collect, presented NGA’s operational challenges process, exploit, disseminate and man- and capability gap areas for industry to age much higher volumes of data and propose new ideas and concepts that will information. DARPA can help NGA meet lead to viable technological solutions. In these demands. return, three DARPA program managers The directors of NGA and DARPA signed briefed samples of current and future a Memorandum of Agreement in January projects that address a few of NGA’s for a long-term cooperative program. The technology interests. agreement calls for the two agencies to One the projects, NeuroTechnology for “collaborate in the planning, program Intelligence Analysts, is an initiative to help implementation, program execution, the analysts use intrinsic brain signals to transition and operationalization of in- improve the throughput and accuracy of novative technologies, which will enable imagery analysis. The All-Things Reposi- NGA’s transformation to meet current tory is a program to create a capability to store, retrieve and mine enormous quanti- ties of data for rapid access and retrieval. And Persistent Exploitation of Persistent Sensing is an exploratory research project to recognize targets and events by observing and modeling ongoing normal activities in a sensor-rich environment. In addition, DARPA contract management personnel described the DARPA mechanisms by DARPA’s technical ex- pertise will assist NGA in which industry can participate in the joint its transformation effort. program.

40 41 Established in 1958, DARPA has a Suk Sull, NGA Liaison to DARPA. mission “to assure that the United States Scientists from the two agencies are also maintains a lead in applying state-of-the- collaborating on advanced mathematics, art technology for military capabilities” neuroscience and counter- underground and “to prevent facility capabilities. technological sur- “The DARPA-NGA partnership prise from adver- At the same time, junior- to mid-level personnel from NGA are participating is a win-win opportunity for saries.” DARPA in the DARPA internship program, both organizations. NGA brings consider- able funding and which involves a three-month, on-site leverages DARPA research and world-class tech- opportunity for an NGA employee to learn development expertise, and nical expertise to DARPA’s culture and the unique missions of DARPA’s offices, while articulating resources for solving NGA’s its partnership NGA mission challenges and technology hard problems, while DARPA with NGA. needs to DARPA program managers. assures security objectives.” Analysts from —Dr. Young Suk Sull, NGA “are as- “The DARPA-NGA partnership is a win- win opportunity for both organizations,” NGA Liaison to DARPA sessing DARPA advanced exploi- Sull notes. “NGA leverages DARPA tation and tar- research and development expertise, and get-recognition resources for solving NGA’s hard prob- technology for its application to their lems, while DARPA assures its transition operational missions,” says Dr. Young partner in NGA for the common purpose of meeting nation’s security objectives.”

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