Vice Adm. Robert Sharp, Director of the US National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), underlined the value of geospatial intelligence, or GEOINT, in the form of commercial satellite imagery and analytics that have been instrumental to the resistance put up by Ukraine against Russian aggression, and also to “shaping world views of the crisis”. In his keynote at GEOINT 2022 Symposium here in Aurora, Colorado, on April 25, Vice Adm. Sharp said GEOINT is even being used “effectively to provide transparency, and counter Russian disinformation”.
“These geospatially based products have been absolutely critical in providing world leaders and military planners a common understanding of what’s going on in Ukraine and its surrounding areas, so that they can concentrate their time and energy on discussing what can be done, and taking action,” he said.
“Publicly available imagery of Ukraine is now providing unprecedented public insight that until recently would’ve been only available through government agencies and officials. And it’s helping a democratic country fight for its survival, and preserve its independence,” he said.
Vice Adm. Sharp us stepping down as the NGA director in June. He will be succeeded by Vice Admiral Trey Whitworth, again a US Navy officer, who has, incidentally, been Sharp’s relief in three previous position. Vice Admiral Whitworth will arrive at the symposium on Tuesday and most of Wednesday.
GeoInt, OSINT Comes Off Age For Near Real Time Coverage of Ukraine Conflict
It’s all a team effort in Europe
The NGA director added that while the agency is constantly monitoring events in Ukraine and in the surrounding regions, it is also disseminating GEOINT to partner nations who are engaged in joint missions. “We’re not doing it alone; it’s a true Team of Team efforts across an extensive, partnered GEOINT community, working collaboratively to share GEOINT data, products and services in ways we’ve never done before.”
NGA is providing its mission partners with access to numerous sources of GEOINT, including commercial imagery and data, and in fact been largely instrumental in making way for US imagery companies providing assistance NATO and the Western allies in this situation. “Absolutely. Heck yeah! No restrictions. We support and applaud those efforts 100 percent!”
Highlighting some new and unconventional things NGA is doing in “warfighter support” these days, Vice Adm. Robert Sharp, shared a quick example at the tactical level with the audience.
An NGA team had had gone to the US European Command Area of Operations last month, to train some military partners on the Aerial Reconnaissance Tactical Edge Mapping Imagery System (ARTEMIS for short). ARTEMIS is a small Unmanned Aircraft System that’s ideal for atmospheric conditions that aren’t the best for satellite collection, like extensive cloud coverage, but still needs updated, more current GEOINT. The NGA director shared that as a result of this initiative, the military forces in Europe can now use ARTEMIS for high-resolution imagery, creating their own GEOINT at the tactical edge that can be easily shared at the unclassified level with international partners, and with no restrictions.
People and partnerships; partnerships and people
Vice Adm. Robert Sharp underlined that partnerships were the very foundation of what made NGA, and the entire GEOINT community, work so well. “Our people and our partnerships are our strategic competitive advantage… Our competitors wish they had a key partner like NRO – where our relationship is the strongest it’s been in our respective histories – or strong, collaborative partnerships like we enjoy across the US Intelligence Community. Great partners like DIA and NSA.”
Partnerships are critical to the ongoing success, he said. While the commercial satellite industry received a praise as crucial partner for “absolutely knocked it out of the park” in delivering what was required of them in the Ukraine crisis, he also had special words of applause for the academic world. “Our Education Partner Agreements and Cooperative Research & Development Agreements – with so many great universities – have not only established cutting-edge research critical to improving our capabilities, but a pipeline for the future GEOINT analysts, imagery analysts, data scientists, geodesy scientists, and other STEM experts we all need,” he said.
