DHS to Re-solicit Remote Sensing for Homeland Security Procurement and other Federal Gov GIS News

In reference to the subject solicitation for Remote Sensing services, the Office of Procurement Operations, Enterprise Acquisitions Division (OPO/EAD) intends to cancel the procurement and re-solicit... 

It's not 100% clear why, but maybe the documents were just confusion. The cancellation notice goes on:

As a result of the response from industry, the Geospatial Management Office and the OPO/EAD will be streamlining the evaluation criteria in order to clarify for the vendors the basis on which their proposals will be evaluated.

- notice via @MAPPSorg

It's been a few years since the news of a new NGA HQ began. Another big milestone occured last week: the master plan was approved.

The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) approved the final plan for a redeveloped intelligence community campus in Bethesda, Md., last week.

The 39-acre campus and former home of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency will support 3,000 employees and be run by the Defense Intelligence Agency, according to the Army Corps of Engineers, which is developing the site. Construction should be finished by the end of 2013.

- Federal Times

The NGA released some imagery from the GAMBIT and HEXAGON satellites. The birds and their details were release last fall, but a few images became available in January. Sadly, they are not available for analysis.

The GAMBIT and HEXAGON satellites were formally declassified last September on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the National Reconnaissance Office.  At that time, the NRO released voluminous documentation on the development of those satellites.  But the associated imagery, which is held by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, was not released.  Now a small number of satellite images have been made public.

However, the newly disclosed images are not originals, but are embedded in “posters” published by the NRO.  As such, they do not lend themselves to detailed analysis, complained Charles P. Vick of GlobalSecurity.org.  Nor are the original negatives of the declassified photos available for public inspection.

- Secrecy News

• AGRICULTURE. Olsson Frank Weeda Terman Matz has been hired by the National Geospatial Coalition to “consult and advocate regarding funding and use of geospatial imaging in federal agriculture programs,” according to lobbying disclosure records. Former Rep. Charlie Stenholm (D-Texas) is lobbying for the coalition.

Olsson, etc. is not a person but a law firm. And, the organization is not the National Geospatial Coalition (no such thing so far as I could find) but rather the Agriculture Geospatial Coalition, LLC, which I wrote about in 2009 (APB coverage).

- The Hill

EnhancedView Could Take $50 Million Hit - Aviation Week

Aviation Week is reporting that the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) may be forced to renegotiate the EnhanceView contract with GeoEye and DigitalGlobe due to an expected $50 Million cut to the agency's 2012 fiscal year budget with the prospect of more cuts in fiscal 2013. The original EnhancedView contract was $7.3 billion over 10 years and was signed in 2010. The contract was roughly split between the two commercial satellite providers. According to a source cited by Aviation Week:

“You’re going to have to find a way to probably restructure the current service-level agreements with both companies if they’re going to take $50 million out,” says one geospatial-intelligence industry official familiar with EnhancedView. “Any reduction in the budget on the service-level agreement means you’re changing the scope of the contract and you have to renegotiate.”

Last week we reported that NGA was going to procure less imagery in 2013 but that Pentagon investments in new spacecraft would continue.

NGA to Procure Less Imagery but More Capacity, FBI RFI for LBS Intelligence

The U.S. Defense Department intends to reduce planned purchases of commercial satellite imagery in 2013 as part of a broader initiative aimed at reducing U.S. military expenditures by $259 billion over the next five years, according to a Pentagon planning document released Jan. 26.

However, the document says the Pentagon will continue to increase its commercial satellite imaging capacity, an indication that planned government-backed investments in new spacecraft will go forward. Commercial imagery was listed among several programs targeted for substantial reductions, the document said, specifying that purchases for imaging capacity that exceeds requirements will be affected.

I read that as NGA will buy less imagery, but will continue to fund EnhancedView. The info comes from a document previewing the 2013 defence budget requests shared in a press release on Jan 26.

- Space News

The FBI is looking for a "geospatial alert and analysis mapping application" that will allow its Strategic Information and Operations Center (SIOC) to "quickly vet, identify and geo-locate breaking events, incidents and emerging threats," according to the RFI.

- Information Technology

DoD Issues “Instructions” on GEOINT

Keith Masback (@geointer), president of the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF), retweeted a U.S. Department of Defense document (PDF) issued today that "establishes policies, assigns responsibilities, and provides guidance for GEOINT operations within the DoD in accordance with the authority in DoD Directive (DoDD) 5143.01." Here are a few snippents of relevance from this document:

• POLICY: It is DoD policy that GEOINT operations and activities shall be treated as high priority efforts and conducted in a unified and synchronized manner, due to the vital role GEOINT plays in the successful conduct of military operations and activities, in executing the mission of the DoD, and in supporting national security.
• GEOINT conducted under the authority of the Secretary of Defense shall comply with the [National System for GEOINT] NSG strategic guidance, policies, and procedures issued by the Director, NGA, acting concurrently as the DoD GEOINT Manager and as the GEOINT Functional Manager.
• The Director, NGA shall:
  • 
    Prioritize and implement activities necessary for timely, relevant, and accurate GEOINT;
  •  Lead the evaluation of all available GEOINT sources, including foreign, to identify the current and future technical, analytic, and mission value.
•  Director National Reconnaissance Office (NRO):
  • 
    Coordinate with the Director, NGA, to develop and provide integrated GEOINT and DoD human intelligence, counterintelligence, and measurement and signature intelligence activities, as needed.
  • Coordinate with the Combatant Commands to synchronize DoD intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance resources with other collection activities, and monitor execution of GEOINT collection operations

This is only a sampling of what is contained in the document and if you are interested you should read it in its entirety. I'm not certain why this set of "instructions" (not a directive?) was issued at this time or whether the information changes what was in place previously. Was there confusion over responsiblities and accountablity? However, it does make clear that the director of the NGA, currently Ms. Letitia Long, sits as the key figure for all geospatial intelligence for the DoD. To me, however, this did not seem to be in doubt before.

Long Provides Blueprint for NGA Modernization #geoint2011

Letitia Long, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, provided a four-point plan for making her vision a reality. Last year at the GEOINT conference she emphasized that she wanted to put the power of geospatial intelligence in the hands of more users. This year she updated the GEOINT Symposium audience with the progress that the agency has made. The four elements of the plan are:

CONTENT - The goal is to expose 100% of the content within the agency and make it discoverable. Any source material,  commercial and NRO imagery; foundation data, whether it is spatial or aspatial in nature ... Whatever is in the analyst's shoebox and especially finished product she wants posted on NGA website.

OPEN IT ENVIRONMENT - Long wants an environment that is two way where users can contribute to the CONTENT environment as well.

CUSTOMER SERVICE - Long emphasized that it is all about the user experience.  "We are a full service organizations; we understand the user's footprint and can anticipate the needs of our customers; we need an open IT environment to expose all that content," she said. "We will always be embedded with our mission partner; but increasingly our mission partners are GIS-savvy. We encourage it. For users needing assisted service they can enter into a chat with an analyst that helps the mobile force in certain challenges, what Long calls proactive assisted service.

ANALYTICS DEPTH - Long emphasized that when content is easily accessible and the user is being served, then the NGA can get to the deeper analytics. Long said that over 100 applications for mobile use were being developed and she demonstrated an iPad app developed by NGA to help disaster response team.