Program Notes
Written by / Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
The Army has established the Army Geospatial Center (AGC) as a direct reporting center under the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). The center was formerly known as the Engineer Research and Development Center’s Topographic Engineering Center (TEC).
The Army Geospatial Center will continue TEC’s legacy of providing geospatial support and products to warfighters, but will expand its mission to support the Army’s battle command systems, facilitating dissemination of relevant geospatial information to every level across the dynamic battlefield environment. Additionally, the center will coordinate, integrate and synchronize geospatial information requirements and standards across the Army, as well as develop and field geospatial enterprise-enabled systems and capabilities to the Army and Department of Defense.
“This is a great opportunity for USACE to respond to a critical need for our Army,” said Lieutenant General Robert Van Antwerp, chief of engineers.
“Army leadership has asked us to step up to the plate and solve pressing geospatial problems that are negatively impacting our units’ battle command.”
“Multiple standards and conflicting policies equate to slowing our commanders’ ability to act decisively within the complex operational environment,” said Robert Burkhardt, AGC director and the Army’s geospatial information officer. “This reorganization allows us to focus entirely on the Army Geospatial Enterprise function— from policy to war fighting. It also provides greater visibility for a geospatial enterprise across the Army and the joint communities.”
The AGC is now designated as the Army Knowledge Center for Geospatial Expertise, and will serve as a key enabler of the Army Geospatial Enterprise—an integrated system of technologies and processes that delivers a geospatial common operational picture to the warfighter.
Burgess Takes DIA Helm
Army Lieutenant General Ronald L. Burgess Jr. has become the 17th director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and assumed command of the Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance ( JFCC-ISR) for U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM).
Burgess succeeds Army Lieutenant General Michael D. Maples, who had been the director of DIA and commander of the JFCC-ISR since 2005.
At a recent ceremony, Air Force General Kevin P. Chilton, commander of USSTRATCOM, passed the flag of the JFCC-ISR from Maples to Burgess, signifying the change of command. James R. Clapper Jr., undersecretary of defense for intelligence, officiated for the DIA change of directorship.
As the director of DIA, Burgess is the principal adviser to the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on substantive intelligence matters and serves as the manager for defense human intelligence and defense counterintelligence. He also directs and manages resources under the General Defense Intelligence Program and the Department of Defense Foreign Counterintelligence Program.
In his remarks, Burgess observed that those who have the biggest stake in DIA were not present. He pointed out that rather than being at the ceremony, they were “flying helicopters or jets, riding mine resistant vehicles, standing watch at sea, taking down improvised explosive devices networks or planning a raid, building a school or a bridge, or providing a safe and secure environment so that other people may come to know some of the same freedoms that we cherish today.”
Burgess referred to these as “the warfighters and those who support them,” adding, “This agency’s very existence, and its mission, is about enabling their success—in peace, in war and all operations between.
“That is the vital mission that defines who we are as an agency—a combat support agency,” Burgess added.
Under Maples’ leadership, DIA nearly doubled in size while implementing defense intelligence initiatives including the establishment of the Defense Intelligence Operations Coordination Center, creation of the Defense Counterintelligence and Human Intelligence Center, creation of a National Measurement and Signature Intelligence Management Office, and a study that brought combatant command civilians into DIA. While carrying out the changes, Maples also kept the agency focused on the conditions in Iraq, Afghanistan and the global war on terrorism, and increased DIA’s forward-deployed capabilities and support to the combatant commands.
Burgess has nearly 35 years of commissioned service in military intelligence and has held key intelligence positions at the Joint Special Operations Command, the U.S. Southern Command and the Joint Staff. Prior to assuming his new position, he served as the director of intelligence staff and as the acting principal deputy director of national intelligence, Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Integrated Exploitation Capability Reaches Milestone
The National Geospatial- Intelligence Agency and Lockheed Martin recently reached a major milestone in the integration and delivery of geospatial data, installing the 4,000th user workstation under the Integrated Exploitation Capability (IEC) program and NGA’s Federated Partner contracts. IEC workstations are specialized computer suites that serve as the primary portal to the nation’s imagery and geospatial capabilities for defense, intelligence and civil agency users worldwide.
The IEC program was initiated 10 years ago in an effort to upgrade from hard-copy, stovepiped imagery and mapping systems to an integrated, all-digital suite of applications. IEC workstations not only speed the online delivery of geospatial-intelligence to users worldwide, but also allow those users to conduct advanced analysis and data fusion from their location.
IEC gives users access to data from a variety of sensors, including satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles and airborne radar. Combatant commands, intelligence agencies and emergency response organizations rely on IEC for day-to-day operations at 115 different sites worldwide. ♦
