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NGA Marks End of Wet Film Processing, But Decades of Use Illustrate “Enormity of Our Tasking”

Frank Wolfe Frank Wolfe
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NGA Marks End of Wet Film Processing, But Decades of Use Illustrate “Enormity of Our Tasking”
Lt. Col. Ralph Shoukry prepares to take off in his U-2 for the Optical Bar Camera's final flight out of the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale AFB, Calif. on June 24 last year (U.S. Air Force Photo)

This summer, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) moved to all digital imagery after the agency finished the June processing of the final two miles of wet film from the KA-80 Optical Bar Camera (OBC), used by reconnaissance aircraft and satellites for nearly 70 years for precision, wide area synoptic coverage of the Earth. Itek Corp., which eventually became Goodrich Corp., built OBC. “That platform still reminds us of the enormity of our tasking,” NGA Director Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth said…

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