Geospatial intelligence is at an inflection point. And NGA finds itself in the midst of a professional revolution — rich with game-changing opportunity and unbounded potential.

Every day, the world grows more complex, dynamic and dangerous. Thus, the demand for geospatial intelligence to convey content in context to enable customer consequence has never been more acute or important. The manner in which we execute our mission going forward will make all the difference.

However, a caution — what got us here, won’t get us there.

The new actors in our mission space — from developers of small satellites to international partners to online communities of geographers and technologists— are alive with energy and ideas that enhance our collective contribution to our national security.

We understand that NGA will not, by itself, stay ahead of technology trends.

Thus, we must become better at finding and exploiting the innovations of others. The exponential growth in the quantity and quality of geo-tagged data must be harnessed for our analysts to find insight and meaning behind, beneath and between the data.

We welcome and embrace these emerging information sources as we continue to leverage exquisite and specialized classified sources. Our environment grows more transparent and more connected by the day. Our customers will access our geospatial service as seamlessly on the World Wide Web as on our classified networks. We will integrate geospatial intelligence within the context of all sources to resolve intelligence questions.

We will invest in our people to develop in them the skills and perspectives that will carry us forward. We will get better at our craft. We will learn to succeed wherever and whenever the moment demands. To do all of that, we will take calculated risk and learn and adapt as the realities of the world dictate.

We will lead. With traditional and nontraditional partners at our side, we will be as mindful of their needs as we are of ours. And, above all else, we will bring value to our customers in the time and terms of their choosing.

I invite you to embrace this opportunity and shoulder our obligation to meet the future that the world demands and our customers deserve.

This is our moment.

Robert Cardillo
Director, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Click here to read the 2015 NGA Strategy.