 |
|
2. NIMA from the Beginning
The National Imagery
and Mapping Agency (NIMA), according to its own lights, "...was established
October 1, 1996, to address the expanding requirements in the areas of
imagery, imagery intelligence, and geospatial information. It is a Department
of Defense (DoD) combat support agency that has been assigned an important,
additional statutory mission of supporting national-level policymakers
and government agencies. NIMA is a member of the Intelligence Community
and the single entity upon which the US government now relies to coherently
manage the previously separate disciplines of imagery and mapping. By
providing customers with ready access to the world's best imagery and
geospatial information, NIMA provides critical support for the national
decisionmaking process and contributes to the high state of operational
readiness of America's military forces."2
NIMA was borne, not
out of whole cloth, but by combining extant intelligence and defense organizations
involved in imagery exploitation and mapping, charting, and geodesy--mainly,
the National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC) and the Defense
Mapping Agency (DMA).3
The creators, inter alia, were the Hon. John White, then Deputy
Secretary of Defense, and the Hon. John Deutch, then Director of Central
Intelligence. The creation of NIMA presumed a natural convergence of the
mapping and image-exploitation functions--as each become "digital"--into
a single, coherent organization organized around the construct of a geospatial
information system (GIS).
NIMA's creation was
clouded by the natural reluctance of two cultures to merge and the fear
that their respective missions--mapping in support of defense activities
versus intelligence production, principally in support of the national
policymaker--would be subordinated, each to the other. To a large extent,
a NIMA culture has yet to form, but the Commission is heartened by signs
that the two legacy cultures have begun to see benefit in melding their
respective disciplines to solve real intelligence problems, as exemplified
in a later section.
While convergence
of mapping and imagery exploitation around the organizing GIS construct
still appears to make good technical sense, NIMA has yet to achieve unity,
either of purpose or personnel. Even in today's new-speak, NIMA advertises
itself in terms of USIGS--the US Imagery and Geospatial Service. The NIMA
mission--to provide timely, relevant and accurate imagery, imagery intelligence,
and geospatial information in support of national security objectives--shows
the same multiplicity.
This is not to downplay
the early challenges of merging multiple administrative, logistic, and
personnel systems at different locations, while trying to communicate/collaborate
over different, noninteroperable computing and communications systems.
NIMA's vision is to
guarantee the "information edge" to the US national security community.
Expanding on its vision, NIMA aims to have its information provide the
common reference framework for planning, decisions, and action; provide
ready access to databases of imagery, imagery intelligence, and geospatial
information that it acquires and/or produces; use its information holdings
to create tailored, customer-specific solutions, the information from
which enables their customers to visualize key aspects of national security
problems; and to value the expertise of its people who are critical to
acquiring and/or creating the information that gives the advantage to
its customers.
Suitably laudable
are NIMA's core values: commitment to its customers, demonstrated pride,
initiative, commitment, personal integrity, and professionalism; a culture
that promotes trust, diversity, personal and professional growth, mutual
respect, and open communication; an environment that rewards teamwork,
partnerships, risk taking, creativity, leadership, expertise, and adaptability;
and a tradition of excellence and personal accountability.
Footnotes:
2
http://164.214.2.59/general/faq.html.
3
More completely, "NIMA was formed through the consolidation of the following:
the Defense Mapping Agency (DMA), the Central Imagery Office (CIO), the
Defense Dissemination Program Office (DDPO), and the National Photographic
Interpretation Center (NPIC) as well as the imagery exploitation and dissemination
elements of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the National Reconnaissance
Office (NRO), the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office (DARO), and the
Central Intelligence Agency" ibid.
Foreword
| Executive Summary and Key Judgments
| Introduction | NIMA
from the Beginning
NIMA in Context | Two-and-a-Half
Roles for NIMA | The Promise of NIMA
NIMA and Its Stakeholders |
NIMA and Its "Customers" | Is There a "National
vs Tactical" Problem?
NIMA and Its Peers and Partners | NIMA
and Its Suppliers | NIMA Management Challenges
NIMA's Information Systems | NIMA
Research and Development
NIMA and Its Information Architecture | Recommendations
| Appendix A
Appendix B | Glossary
of Terms
Table
of Contents | Home | PDF
|
