Command Profile: NASIC
Written by Public Affairs Office of the National Air and Space Intelligence Center
BRINGING THE INTEL PIECES TOGETHER
Center creates integrated, predictive intelligence
in the air, space and cyberspace domains
and exploits national and tactical sources
NASIC is a global intelligence enterprise that fulfills the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s warfighter, aids in shaping national and defense policy, and guides the development of future weapons systems. NASIC’s products and services play a key role in ensuring that U.S. forces avoid technological surprise and can counter existing and evolving foreign air, space and cyberspace threats.
Combining a unique scientific and technical intelligence analysis foundation with multiple single source intelligence inputs, NASIC is the one place within DoD where all the pieces come together.
NASIC utilizes the global force expertise of more than 3,000 military, civilian, reserve, guard and contract personnel to accomplish its mission. The all-source analysts at NASIC provide integrated assessments and tailored intelligence products and services that satisfy a wide range of customer needs, regardless of complexity. NASIC provides intelligence directly to operational military units, national and DoD decision-makers and the research and acquisition community to ensure force modernization, development and sustainment of U.S. air, space and cyberspace capabilities.
The combat effectiveness and survivability of advanced weapons and support systems, both in the field and in development, depend on the accuracy of NASIC intelligence. These assessments are an important factor in shaping national security and defense policies. NASIC also supports weapons treaty negotiations and verification as the DoD experts on foreign air and space capabilities.
NASIC develops its products by analyzing all sources of information and intelligence data available to the U.S. intelligence community to determine foreign air, space and cyberspace capabilities, as well as weapons system performance, vulnerabilities, employment intent and proliferation. Center responsibilities cover the full range of air and space systems and technologies, including aircraft; ballistic missiles; space systems; radars; electronic and electro-optic countermeasures; command, control, communications and information systems; and integrated air defense systems.
MASINT LEADER
In addition to its all-source intelligence analysis responsibilities, NASIC serves as the national and DoD executive agent for the processing, exploitation, analysis, integration and dissemination of measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT) data collected from radar, electro-optical and infrared technical sensors. NASIC prepares spectral, spatial and temporal signatures of threat targets in support of air and space forces, develops analytical tools for technical analysis, and provides techniques for the fusion of MASINT data in the operational environment.
The center serves as an exploitation agency for both signals intelligence (SIGINT) and imagery intelligence (IMINT) and develops machine translation tools for use throughout DoD. The center uses a foreign materiel exploitation capability that allows the nation’s top analysts and technicians to fully study foreign weapons systems in a state-of-the-art facility. Sophisticated data processing, advanced engineering techniques, dynamic modeling and simulation tools, and collaboration with the broader U.S. intelligence community enable NASIC analysts, technicians, scientists and engineers to execute their mission.
NASIC traces its heritage back to 1917 at McCook Field in Dayton, Ohio, and T-2 Intelligence at Wright Field in 1945. The Foreign Technology Division marked the beginning of NASIC’s historical lineage in July 1961. The Air Force redesignated the unit as the National Air Intelligence Center in October 1993, and the National Air and Space Intelligence Center in February 2003.
In April 2008, NASIC unitized into a wing structure, activating the Air Force’s very first set of intelligence analysis groups and squadrons. The center is now composed of four intelligence analysis groups (with 17 subordinate squadrons) and four mission sustaining directorates:
• Air and Cyberspace Analysis Group
• Data Analysis Group
• Global Threat Analysis Group
• Space and Missiles Analysis Group
• Communications and Information Directorate
• Human Resources Directorate
• Mission Support Directorate
• Plans and Policies Directorate.
Through these intelligence analysis groups and enabled by the mission sustainment directorates, NASIC accomplishes a diverse set of missions. While some missions reside wholly within one group or squadron,often the dynamic nature of 21st century threats forces corresponding missions to overlap between groups and squadrons, to ensure collaborative, operationally relevant analysis regardless of the requesting stakeholder. These missions are broken into eight main categories:
Air and Counterair. Assess the capabilities of foreign aircraft, air-launched weapons, unmanned aerial vehicles and the likelihood of their employment against U.S. forces. Fuse intelligence community air defense component analysis to produce a macro-level assessment of a country’s Integrated Air Defense System.
Space and Counterspace. Develop integrated, all-source space and counterspace threat assessments and provide detailed understanding of foreign threats to U.S. space systems, capabilities of foreign space users and systems support to act as force multipliers.
Ballistic Missiles. Assess land-based foreign ballistic missile systems with range of 1,000 kilometers and greater, their subsystems, operational capabilities, effectiveness, proliferation and technology transfer.
Intelligence Processing. Process and analyze multiple intelligence data sources (signals, imagery, measurement and signature, open source, advanced geospatial and foreign materiel exploitation), integrating and fusing these sources into single-, multi-, and all-source intelligence products.
Integrated Assessments. Assess foreign integrated war fighting capabilities, force structure, operational art and intent across the air, space, cyberspace and information domains, for both current and future forces. NASIC brings together the personnel, systems, and concepts of operations to form a complete picture of adversary air, space and cyberspace capabilities.
Cyberspace. Assess foreign offensive and defensive operations and capabilities in cyberspace to include information and network operations.
Disruptive Technologies. Assess emerging technologies that could potentially be used in an air, space and/or cyberspace war fighting capacity against the United States.
C4ISR. Assess the characteristics, capabilities, limitations, and vulnerabilities of foreign air and space C4ISR infrastructure, networks, systems and processes.
REACHING THE END USER
Beyond the accomplishment of the mission, NASIC continues its dedication to the delivery of that information to its stakeholders in the policymaking, war fighting and acquisition communities. This starts by maximizing a diversity of experience and expertise within the center to ensure responses are tailored to specific requestors’ needs. Once the analysis is complete, NASIC leverages a variety of production vehicles to communicate analysis to the end user.
These products range from one- or two-page executive summaries to multiple volumes in comprehensive studies, and from briefings and presentations to innovative video simulations. These simulations (threat visualizations) condense hundreds of pages of intelligence documents, technical diagrams and engineering signature work into three- to five-minute video representations of current or predicted threats. This innovative threat representation technique allows the clearest communication of threat capabilities and intents regardless of the technical and scientific background of the viewing audience.
Whether providing national decision- makers with strategic level threat understanding, preparing the force modernization community with projections about future threats or providing a scientific and technical application to tactical war fighting operations, the NASIC is dedicated to creating and communicating critical analysis, within actionable timelines, that is operationally relevant for all of its stakeholders. It provides the right intelligence, in the right format, for the right customer, at the right time. ♦
