National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Director Vice Adm. Robert Sharp, in his role as the GEOINT Functional Manager, recently published the National System for Geospatial Intelligence Enterprise Commercial GEOINT Strategy 2021-2025, calling on the GEOINT community to leverage more commercial technologies and methods to help the enterprise move faster and grow stronger.
“By taking a community approach to commercial GEOINT – one that aligns with our overarching NSG strategic goals, we continue to pave a way forward that not only benefits and supports our global national security needs but expands our partnerships within the growing sector of commercial GEOINT – giving access to responsive and innovative tools and capabilities that will help us meet the challenges of the 21st century and beyond,” Sharp said.
The NSG is the combination of technology, policies, capabilities, doctrine, activities, people, data and communities necessary to produce GEOINT in an integrated multi-intelligence, multi-domain environment. The NSG includes the Intelligence Community, the Joint Staff, the Military Departments, the Combatant Commands, international partners, National Applications Office and Civil Applications Committee members.
The strategy sets a variety of initiatives in four different areas:
- Drive unity of effort
- Diversify sources and build capacity through partnerships
- Improve data security and develop processes to mitigate risks
- Influence and foster commercial capabilities
Multiple other U.S. strategies – the National Strategy for Space, National Defense Strategy and Defense Space Strategy – played a key role in developing this strategy because of their references to the criticality of strengthening and leveraging private sector innovation for national security. Deliberate industry engagement that is well-planned and interoperable across our enterprise will generate synergy across the NSG.