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CAMP VICTORY, Iraq (March 19, 2008) - Multi-National Division -
Center formed in spring 2007 as part of the U.S. troop surge. The
progress made since then has been well-documented as Soldiers have
built a network of patrol bases covering the "belts" of suburbs and
agricultural communities surrounding southern and eastern Baghdad.
What is less well-known is the surge in support required from other
U.S. government agencies in bringing about those gains. In MND-C,
one of the most significant of those surge partners is the National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
The NGA - a Department of Defense support agency and member of
the U.S. intelligence community - is a silent partner in the Iraq
fight.
"When the fog of war thickens, as it always does, geospatial
intelligence creates a vivid visual picture of the battle space,"
said NGA director Vice Admiral Robert B. Murrett.
Murrett explained that the mapping and imagery his staff
produces gives commanders on the ground a forward look into enemy
territory.
Based in Bethesda, Md., with locations around the globe, the
NGA's mission is exploitation and analysis of imagery and
geospatial information to describe, assess and visually depict
physical features and geographically-referenced activities on the
Earth in support of national security needs.
Over the past year, MND-C forces in central Iraq have launched a
series of combat offensives, each targeting a small geographic
region around towns and villages deemed strategic for their
location relative to Baghdad or their status as enemy sanctuaries.
These were areas where Coalition forces had not sustained a
presence for years; MND-C itself was a new creation under the U.S.
troop surge and information on the area was slim.
Enter the NGA.
"When the mission enters unfamiliar territory, geospatial
intelligence shows the way with maps, charts and imagery," Murrett
said.
Partnered for the last 12 months with the division G2's
Analytical and Control Element, NGA's GEOINT Support Team 29
provides 24/7 support to the ACE. Analysts work shifts, while the
team leader supervises operations and works with the G2 and ACE
leadership to focus geospatial analysis where it is most effective
in supporting the mission. The team also acts as a conduit for
customized reach-back support from NGA's U.S. headquarters.
According to an unnamed NGA official, the group's mission is
highly collaborative, complementing MND-C's other intelligence
feeds to give a more complete picture of the ground situation.
"GEOINT is collaborative. It fuses with information from other
intelligence analytical tradecrafts answering the questions, 'When,
where, and how often?'" the official said.
Taking advantage of the visual medium, he explained, GEOINT uses
geospatial data to display volumes of information, forming a bridge
from raw data points to a refined intelligence picture.
"In Iraq, we have used GEOINT to effectively pinpoint insurgent
locations, identify trends and assist in reducing their
effectiveness to conduct operations against Coalition forces," the
official said.
As surge operations gained momentum through summer and fall
2007, al-Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgents saw attack numbers and
effectiveness diminish, leading Coalition officials to suspect AQI
was either shifting locations or slowly declining as an effective
adversary. MND-C has kept up offensive operations into winter and
spring 2008, but with an increasingly sharper focus, to wipe out
remaining pockets of insurgent resistance. In these later
operations, the NGA's support comes into play more than ever.
"When the enemy tries to hide, geospatial intelligence makes
pinpoint precision targeting possible," Murrett said.
According to their counterparts, the NGA staff is critical to
mission success because they allow Soldiers to operate more
efficiently in a massive battlespace.
"They have been a critical force multiplier, and their presence
has exponentially increased our GEOINT capacity," said Warrant
Officer Scott Potter, ACE GEOINT branch chief, G2 section, 3rd
Infantry Division.
"The depiction and associated analysis of the spatial
relationship of events is key to the accomplishment of our mission
in Iraq," Potter said.
On a day-to-day basis, the NGA team assists MND-C units with
analytical intelligence assessments, exploitation of imagery,
production of graphical analytical products depicting weapons cache
finds and IED attack trends, force protection planning and, more
recently, general infrastructure repair support.
After months of intense fighting in areas that once represented
the heart of the Sunni insurgency, Coalition forces are beginning
the transition to stability operations. While the potential for
physical harm is reduced in the shift from kinetics to
capacity-building, the need for real-time intelligence and ground
visibility is unchanged and situational awareness remains a
critical factor in success.
As a result of the shift, support to infrastructure and
reconstruction projects is becoming a higher priority for the NGA
team.
One example of that shift involves exploring the potential use
of geospatial analysis and advanced technology to assist in
monitoring and depicting the health of agriculture in MND-C and the
status of the irrigation canal network - crucial capabilities in
supporting a region of Iraq that is heavily dependent on
agriculture for its livelihood.
That cooperation and adaptability has earned the agency praise
from Coalition officials.
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