National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency


The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense whose primary mission is collecting, analyzing, and distributing geospatial intelligence to support national security. Founded in 1996 as the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, it changed names in 2003. It is a member of the United States Intelligence Community.
NGA headquarters, also known as NGA Campus East or NCE, is located at Fort Belvoir North Area in Springfield, Virginia. At, it is the third-largest government building in the Washington metropolitan area after the Pentagon and the Ronald Reagan Building. The agency also operates NGA Campus West, or NCW, in St. Louis, Missouri, and support and liaison offices worldwide.
NGA also helps respond to natural and manmade disasters, helps with security planning for major events such as the Olympic Games, disseminates maritime safety information, and gathers data on climate change.
The eighth and current director of the agency is Vice Admiral Frank D. Whitworth III.
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History

U.S. mapping and charting efforts remained relatively unchanged until World War I, when aerial photography became a major contributor to battlefield intelligence. Using stereo viewers, photo-interpreters reviewed thousands of images. Many were of the same target at different angles and times, giving rise to modern imagery analysis and mapmaking.

Engineer Reproduction Plant (ERP)

The Engineer Reproduction Plant was the Army Corps of Engineers's first attempt to centralize mapping production, printing, and distribution. It was located on the grounds of the Army War College in Washington, D.C. Previously, topographic mapping had primarily been a function of individual field engineer units using field surveying techniques or copying existing or captured products. In addition, ERP assumed the "supervision and maintenance" of the War Department Map Collection, effective April 1, 1939.

Army Map Service (AMS) / U.S. Army Topographic Command (USATC)

With the advent of the Second World War aviation, field surveys began giving way to photogrammetry, photo interpretation, and geodesy. During wartime, compiling maps with minimal field work became increasingly possible. Out of this emerged AMS, which absorbed the existing ERP in May 1942. It was located at the Dalecarlia Site on MacArthur Blvd., just outside Washington, D.C., in Montgomery County, Maryland, and adjacent to the Dalecarlia Reservoir. AMS was designated as an Engineer field activity, effective July 1, 1942, by General Order 22, OCE, June 19, 1942. The Army Map Service also combined many of the Army's remaining geographic intelligence organizations and the Engineer Technical Intelligence Division. AMS was redesignated the U.S. Army Topographic Command on September 1, 1968, and continued as an independent organization until 1972, when it was merged into the new Defense Mapping Agency and redesignated as the DMA Topographic Center .

Aeronautical Chart Plant (ACP)

After the war, the need for charts grew as airplane capacity and range improved. The Army Air Corps established its map unit, which was renamed ACP in 1943 and was located in St. Louis, Missouri. ACP was known as the U.S. Air Force Aeronautical Chart and Information Center from 1952 to 1972.

National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC)

Shortly before leaving office in January 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized the creation of the National Photographic Interpretation Center, a joint project of the CIA and DIA. NPIC was a component of the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology, and its primary function was imagery analysis. NPIC became part of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency in 1996.
;Directors of NPIC
DirectorTenure
Arthur C. LundahlMay 1953 – July 1973
John J. HicksJuly 1973 – May 1978
Rutledge P. HazzardJune 1978 – February 1984
Robert M. HuffstutlerFebruary 1984 – January 1988
Frank J. RuoccoFebruary 1988 – February 1991
Leo A. HazlewoodFebruary 1991 – September 1993
Nancy E. BoneOctober 1993 – September 1996

Cuban Missile Crisis

In 1962, NPIC analysts discovered that the Soviet Union was basing missiles in Cuba. Using images from U-2 overflights and film from canisters ejected from Corona satellites, They informed U.S. policymakers and influenced operations during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Their analysis garnered worldwide attention when the Kennedy Administration declassified and made public a portion of the images depicting the Soviet missiles on Cuban soil; Adlai Stevenson presented the images to the United Nations Security Council on October 25, 1962.

Defense Mapping Agency (DMA)

The Defense Mapping Agency was created on January 1, 1972, to consolidate U.S. military mapping activities. DMA's "birth certificate", DoD Directive 5105.40, resulted from a formerly classified Presidential directive, "Organization and Management of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Community", which directed the consolidation of mapping functions previously dispersed among the military services. DMA became operational on July 1, 1972, pursuant to General Order 3, DMA. On October 1, 1996, DMA was folded into the National Imagery and Mapping Agency – which later became NGA.
DMA was first headquartered at the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., then at Falls Church, Virginia. Its mostly civilian workforce was concentrated at production sites in Bethesda, Maryland; Northern Virginia; and St. Louis, Missouri. DMA was formed from the Mapping, Charting, and Geodesy Division, Defense Intelligence Agency, and various mapping-related organizations of the military services.
DMA included the following centers:
; DMA Hydrographic Center
; DMA Topographic Center
; DMA Hydrographic/Topographic Center
; '''DMA Aerospace Center '''

National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA)

NIMA was established on October 1, 1996, by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997. The creation of NIMA followed more than a year of study, debate, and planning by the defense, intelligence, and policy-making communities and continuing consultations with customer organizations. The creation of NIMA centralized responsibility for imagery and mapping.
NIMA combined the DMA, the Central Imagery Office, and the Defense Dissemination Program Office in their entirety, as well as the mission and functions of the NPIC. Also merged into NIMA were the imagery exploitation, dissemination, and processing elements of the Defense Intelligence Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, and the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office.
NIMA's creation was clouded by the natural reluctance of cultures to merge and the fear that their respective missions—mapping in support of defense activities versus intelligence production, principally in support of national policymakers—would be subordinated, each to the other.

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)

With the enactment of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 on November 24, 2003, NIMA was renamed National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to reflect better its primary mission in the area of GEOINT.

2005 BRAC and effects on NGA

As a part of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure process, all major Washington, D.C.–area NGA facilities, including those in Bethesda; Reston, Virginia; and Washington, D.C., were consolidated at a new facility at the former Engineer Proving Ground site near Fort Belvoir. This new facility, later known as NCE, houses several thousand people. NGA facilities in St. Louis were not affected by the 2005 BRAC process.
As of March 2009, the new center's cost was expected to be $2.4 billion. The center's campus is about and was completed in September 2011.

Next NGA St. Louis

In September, 2025, NGA opened a new facility in St. Louis, Missouri, Next NGA St. Louis, at a cost of $1.7 billion. The facility will hold 3,000 employees. St. Louis' city legislature is currently reconsidering legislation to surround Next NGA St. Louis with a protection zone that would bar certain businesses, such as gas stations, hazardous material companies, and foreign government-supported enterprises, from building around the site for security purposes.

Organization

Agency structure

Executive leaders

A director heads NGA, currently Army Lieutenant General Michelle Bredenkamp Michele Bredenkamp; the director is followed in precedence by the deputy director and chief of staff, currently Brett Markham. The holders of these three offices comprise NGA's executive leadership team.

Chief of Staff

While NGA's director and deputy director oversee the agency, the Chief of Staff oversees NGA's executive support staff, administrative services, logistics, personnel security, human resources, employee training and development, corporate communications, and congressional engagement.

Directorates and directorate leaders

NGA is split into various directorates led by directors and associate deputy directors, with "XX" standing in for each directorate's two-letter designation. Known directorates and leadership figures include but are not limited to the: Analysis Directorate, containing the Director of Analytic Operations and Associate Deputy Director for Operational Engagement and led by a director, currently Director of Analysis Susan "Sue" KalweitSource Operations & Management Directorate , led by the Director of the Source Operations & Management Directorate or Director of Source OperationsEnterprise Operations Directorate , led by the Director of the Enterprise Operations DirectorateIT Services DirectoratePlans and Programs DirectorateResearch DirectorateSecurity and Installation Operations Directorate Human Development Directorate Financial Management Directorate Unnamed "NGA contracting directorate"Acquisitions DirectorateUnnamed "A Directorate" Unnamed "P Directorate"
An Analysis and Production Directorate existed in 2011, although NGA presently has a Directorate for Analysis, which may be a replacement or separated portion of the Analysis and Production Directorate.
The deputy associate director of operations directly oversees the NGA Operations Center the Office of NGA Defense, the Office of Expeditionary Operations, and NGA leadership at the three National Reconnaissance Office Aerospace Data facilities.

Other internal groups and leaders

NGA contains NGA Support Teams, which work with directorates, are detailed internationally, deploy with warfighters, or liaise with service branches. Multiple NGA Command NSTs also exist. NGA's western operations, such as constructing the Next NGA St. Louis campus in St. Louis, Missouri, is headed by the NGA St. Louis executive. There is also an NGA Equality Executive. Other organizations present in NGA, which may or may not be components of directorates, include:
  • NGA Operations Center
  • Office of Expeditionary Operations
  • Office of NGA Defense
  • Office of the Chief Information Officer, led by NGA's chief information officer
  • Office of the Inspector General, led by NGA's Inspector General
  • Records Service Office
  • National Geospatial-Intelligence Committee, containing subcommittees
  • National Geospatial-Intelligence College, led by a director
  • GEOINT Enterprise Office, led by a director and organized into branches
  • Office of Geomatics
  • Aeronautical Navigation Office
  • Office of Corporate Assessment and Program Evaluation
  • Office of Corporate Communications, led by a director
  • Office of Strategic Operations-Performance
  • NGA Cyber Security Operations Cell, led by a director and organized into teams
  • NGA Police
  • NGA History Department
  • Office of Maritime Safety
  • * Bathymetry branch, led by a chief
  • Office of Contract Services
  • Office of Future Warfare Systems
  • Office of Diversity Management and Equal Employment Opportunity, led by a director
  • Custom Media Team, containing the Tailored Media support team and CMGS team
  • GPS Division
  • Historical Imagery Division/Historical Imagery team
  • Volunteered Geographic Information Team, community-led by NGA containing screened non-NGA users/institutions
  • Office of Ventures and Innovation
  • NGA Research, led by a director
  • Enterprise Innovation Office
  • Office of Strategic Operations
  • Office of Geography
  • NGA Outpost Valley, office of NGA in Silicon Valley
  • Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs
  • Personnel Security Division, led by a chief
  • Meteorological Operations Center
  • Office of General Counsel
  • Records and Declassification Program Office
  • FOIA/Privacy Act Program Office
Additionally, military Service GEOINT Offices liaise with NGA but belong to their respective military service branches and represent their geospatial intelligence needs. The Canadian Armed Forces deploys a liaison team to NGA; that team's operations officer also acts as NGA's Commonwealth liaison.
NGA is a member of the National System for Geospatial Intelligence and the more extensive Allied System for Geospatial Intelligence, which includes close allies Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. The U.S. and those four nations also form the Five Eyes intelligence alliance.

Employees

NGA employs professionals in aeronautical analysis, cartography, geospatial analysis, imagery analysis, marine analysis, the physical sciences, geodesy, computer and telecommunication engineering, and photogrammetry, as well as those in the national security and law enforcement fields.

List of NIMA / NGA directors

This table lists all directors of the NIMA and NGA and their terms of office. The agency transitioned from NIMA to NGA during Lieutenant General King's directorship.
  • † - Although General Clapper preferred the use of his military rank, he was, in fact, a member of the Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service during his term as Director of NGA, as he had retired from active duty as the director of Defense Intelligence Agency in 1995. Clapper was the first civilian to head NIMA / NGA.

Civilian, Department of Defense, and intelligence community activities

Controversies

NIMA / NGA has been involved in several controversies.
  • India tested a nuclear weapon in 1998 that reportedly took the United States by surprise. Due to budget cuts in defense spending after the end of the Cold War, the intelligence community was forced to reevaluate the allocation of its limited resources.
  • In 1999, NIMA reportedly provided NATO war planners with incorrect maps that did not reflect that the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade had moved locations, which some have argued was the cause of the accidental NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. The Central Intelligence Agency countered this criticism by saying this overstates the importance of the map itself in the analytic process. Maps of urban areas will be out-of-date the day after they are published, but what is important is having accurate databases.
  • On Jan. 17, 2013, USS Guardian, a mine countermeasures ship, was grounded on the Tubbataha Reef in the southern Philippines. While it was determined that the NGA had provided an inaccurate chart that was off by as much as, the Navy primarily faulted the ship's crew, specifically the commanding officer, the executive officer and two junior officers that were standing watch at the time of the grounding, as they had failed to adhere to prudent, safe, and sound navigation principles. The crew relied solely on the inaccurate Digital Nautical Chart during the planning and execution of the navigation plan and failed to appropriately cross-reference additional charts and utilize visual cues.
  • From 2013 to 2018, NGA designated the latitude and longitude coordinates of a private residence as a default location for Pretoria, South Africa, causing the digital-mapping website MaxMind to set it as the location of over one million IP addresses, which in turn caused people searching for missing phones and other electronics to show up at the residence. The issue was eventually resolved following a private investigation and a request to both NGA and MaxMind that the default location be changed.