NGA puts a "template" on the products that "literally acknowledges … what you are looking at has not been touched by human hands,” said Director Frank Whitworth. “It's important [for] combat commanders and the Secretary and the President that they have that knowledge.”
"COCOMs reported after these tests that J-REN and SlimGIMS not only met the capability gap, but also reduced the time to create a collection request from an hour to 5 minutes," an NGA spokesperson told Breaking Defense.
The challenge for Western democratic institutions is not a lack of capability — it is a structural one.
“The number of detections are way up [and] the number of models that we have are way up, [but] with the same level of compute that you had in 2017,” said Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth. “It starts to slow down. We are already seeing evidence of that.”
In an exclusive sit down with Breaking Defense, Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth defended his agency's role in moving commercial and government satellite data to the field in a timely manner.
NGA chief Frank Whitworth defended his agency’s role in Ground Moving Target Indicator operations to Breaking Defense, as sources say there’s tension behind the scenes.
NGA Director Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth also gave an update on Project Maven and how NGA is working to incorporate artificial intelligence, responsibly, to sift through mountains of data.
From emerging data networks to missile tracking and cyber resilience, Breaking Defense’s latest eBook brings together essential reporting on the evolving role of satellites in national security.
"And make no mistake, distinguishing friendly from unfriendly behavior and space has become particularly important to us," NGA Director Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth told the GEOINT 2023 conference today.