When people talk about intelligence in the US, they usually think of the CIA and the National Security Agency.
The CIA and the National Security Agency are important, but they are only part of a network of 18 agencies and departments that gather, analyze, and distribute intelligence.
Over the past 40 years, the US intelligence community has taken shape and reflected changes in technology and global threats.
The recent events show that the lesser-known agencies can have a big effect on how the US government assesses and reacts to crises around the world.
The NGA and the National Reconnaissance Office have been out of the public eye since the US responded to Russia's war in Ukraine.
The NGA gathers and analyses intelligence about objects and activity on earth and distributes it to other intelligence agencies and law enforcement.
The main goal of the NRO is to complement and support the work of other US intelligence agencies by building and operating spy satellites.
The US's resources allow it to have separate organizations dedicated to certain types of intelligence collection. The capabilities of the NGA and NRO are prized by US allies and the US intelligence community.
The NRO and NGA were keeping a close eye on the Russian military's build up along the borders of Ukraine.
The agencies continued analyzing the progress of the Russian war machine after Putin unleashed his forces.
The plans and intentions of Russian forces and their leaders have been shared by US policymakers. The intel-sharing has helped build support for the military assistance that the US and its allies have given to Ukraine.
The NRO and NGA are siblings. NGA uses the NRO to build and operate satellites that produce intelligence products. The NGA is the most dependent on the NRO satellites.
The ability to determine the composition of buildings or objects on the ground is useful for a number of reasons. Military planners could use it to choose the most effective munition for a precision strike or to determine the exact amount of explosives that troops on the ground need to break the target during a raid.
Some of the most advanced facial recognition software is operated by the NGA. It can measure the body size of a person. All-weather imagery analysis is done using a combination of hyper-spectral and multispectral sensors on satellites.
The NGA works with other countries as well. The head of the agency said that following the signing of a military agreement with India, NGA was allowed to exchange information with New Delhi.
India was locked in a standoff with China along their disputed border in the Himalayas, which allowed the US to share topographical, nautical, and aeronautical data.
A lot of people don't know that the NGA was involved in the mission that killed Osama bin Laden.
The compound where the most wanted terrorist in the world was hiding was mapped by NGA analysts with the help of the Navy Seals.
NGA analysts used imagery and laser radar technology to create a three-dimensional depiction of the compound, as well as analyzing data from RQ-170 drones to determine who was in the compound.
The agency helped the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment create flight simulations that were crucial for their ability to fly a stealth version of the Black Hawks to the target without being detected.
A Hellenic Army veteran, a defense journalist specializing in special operations, and a graduate of a prestigious university are just some of the things that Stavros Atlamazoglou is. He is a student at the School of Advanced International Studies.
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