Sign In
Search
Intelligence Community

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

Frank Wolfe Frank Wolfe
SHARE:
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…

Subscriber-only content. Please log in below.

Not a subscriber or registered user yet?

Please contact us at clientservices@accessintel.com or call us at 888-707-5814 (Monday – Thursday 9:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. and Friday 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. ET.), to start a free trial, get pricing information, order a reprint, or post an article link on your website.

Recommended

Air Force

Department of the Air Force Focused on Mission Systems for Future Tanker to Succeed KC-46 and KC-135

Air Force

USAF Plans Participation of Early CCA Production Aircraft In Emerald Flag

Air Force

Rep. Bacon Broaches APG-83 Radar for Ukrainian F-16s

Air Force

Ukraine Requests U.S. Provision of S-300 ‘Clones’ and TELs For APKWS

Trending

USAF Awards Raytheon Nearly $21 Billion for AMRAAM Foreign Orders
21 Tranche 1, Transport Layer Satellites Delivered to Vandenberg, Northrop Grumman Says
Defense Watch: Munitions Shortages, IVEWS LRIP, Satellite Infrastructure
Lockheed Martin Vectis To Have ‘Almost F-35 Like Capabilities’
U.S. Space Force Pins Hopes on Space-Based Radar Systems, Northrop Grumman Building GMTI System

Congress Updates

Congress

Rep. Himes Signals Increased Contractor Oversight, if Democrats Win House

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, plans to increase the committee’s contractor oversight if the Democrats win control of the House […]

Congress

CBO Estimates Loss of One-Half to Two-Thirds of U.S. Missile Interceptors Since June Last Year

A new Congressional Budget Office report estimates the cost of the Iran war through Aug. 1 as $38 billion and says that the U.S. has likely depleted between one-half and […]

Missile Defense

Fischer Says Golden Dome Boosters Need To Increase Capitol Hill Support With Information, Warns Against Counting On Reconciliation

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – A Senate Armed Services panel chair today said boosters of the Golden Dome program still have work to do to increase support on Capitol Hill while […]

Navy/USMC

HII Executive Outlines Its Shipbuilding Acceleration Strategy

An HII [HII] shipbuilding executive last week told lawmakers how the company plans to improve and accelerate shipbuilding throughout via workforce improvements, adding new shipbuilding infrastructure and reinforcing distributed shipbuilding […]

The Force Multipliers

Force Multipliers

Michael Harrison – SANS Institute

Force Multipliers

Michael DiOrio – Dataminr

Force Multipliers

Arne Brinck – Dark Wolf Solutions

Force Multipliers

Jags Kandasamy – Latent AI

Job Feed

Post a Job // Post a Resume