NGA Director Cardillo testifies before House Armed Services Committee

On March 15, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Director Robert Cardillo testified before the House Armed Services Committee:

As the nation’s primary provider of Geospatial-Intelligence (GEOINT) for the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Intelligence Community (IC), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a regular user and consumer of space-borne sensors and services that enable us to perform missions and activities that include foreign intelligence, mapping, targeting, and safety of navigation.

As such, I appreciate the opportunity to appear alongside my colleagues to discuss the importance of supporting the President’s FY2017 budget request for defense space programs. The proposed budget contains the resources we need to upgrade and integrate the nation’s security space program to be relevant and ready to counter and survive current and future threats. It also includes funds that will allow us to expand GEOINT access to a broader range of users and to integrate and expose as much GEOINT content as feasible through secure, cloud-based information systems. Furthermore, the budget request will give NGA the ability to take greater advantage of commercial sources to increase persistence and to leverage information from the open, unclassified realm in tandem with the exquisite capabilities of classified government platforms and systems. Such investments are critical in an era in which our nation faces more diverse crises than any other time during the past half century. ISIS attacks in Iraq and Syria, refugee migration, continued threats of aggression from Russia and North Korea, China’s moves in the Spratly Islands, cyber-attacks from faceless antagonists, and international criminal networks are just a few examples of the many challenges to our national security.

GEOINT provides key insight and warning to our policy makers and warfighters, who need such information to effectively deal with problems such as these. Likewise, GEOINT provides our military the navigation, targeting, mapping, and imagery data they need to operate and succeed in this era of complex global and diverse threats.

Director Cardillo’s full statement for the record is available here.

Source: NGA

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