Geoint 2016

Networks & Digital Warfare

Major NRO Spy Program Behind Schedule: DNRO Sapp

WASHINGTON: America’s spy satellite maker and operator, the National Reconnaissance Office, has one major satellite program at risk of not meeting its cost and schedule requirements, its director Betty Sapp says. In a rare moment of transparency, Sapp answered my question about the status of the agency’s programs at the Intelligence and National Security Summit […]

Networks & Digital Warfare

NRO Tries New Automatic Systems That Analyze Data & Move Satellites

UPDATED: NRO Confirms SpaceX Launch Buy  GEOINT: The Pentagon’s Third Offset strategy puts much faith in artificial intelligence and machine-to-machine communications. The National Reconnaissance Office is already working on making those a reality, deploying prototypes of its new next-generation ground systems, Director Betty Sapp said here this morning. “We anticipate fielding a ground system able to direct […]

Air Warfare

Civil Liberties Debate Coming On Drone, Sat Photos

GEOINT: Small satellites — thousands of them, spinning round the Earth, taking endless photos from low earth and sun-synchronous orbits. Drones flying round neighborhoods or sitting on your windowsill and taking photos or relaying imagery. And you thought the NSA program that scooped up your phone’s metadata was intrusive? When most Americans think of privacy and […]

Networks & Digital Warfare

NGA, NRO, NSA Joining DoD In Silicon Valley

GEOINT: The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) will be joining the Defense Department in Silicon Valley this summer, director Robert Cardillo says. The new office will be called “NGA Outpost Valley,” a more euphonious name than the Pentagon’s unwieldy DiuX. “It’s a beachhead that will have the authority to reach out to all innovation centers,” […]

Air Warfare

Just Warfare Entails Risk; Movie ‘Eye In The Sky’ Perverts Just War Laws

Dave Deptula, dean of the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute of Aerospace Power Studies, was the first general charged with overseeing drones and the Air Force general in command of the Air Operations Center when the first Predator fired a Hellfire missile. Dave knows drones, their capabilities and the laws and policies governing their use. He provides a […]