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The Path Ahead. As Vice Adm. Robert Murrett prepares to leave his role as director of NGA for a new assignment, he tells
Defense Daily there will be plenty of work for his successor to do as part of the ongoing efforts at NGA. “It goes beyond commercial imagery,” he says. For example, Murrett points to the need to balance the agency’s mission sets, specifically support NGA is doing for combat forces in Afghanistan and Iraq and other locations with the work NGA does in proliferation, WMD developments globally, things happening in countries such as Iran and North Korea and support for national decision makers and key allies.
…Linked In. Murrett believes NGA can always get better at the interaction and linkage the agency has across the intelligence community and DoD. “We can always improve on that and we will continue to do so.” Murrett also acknowledges the workforce and the need to maintain what he sees as the strategic edge at NGA–its people.
…S&T. Murrett sees the importance of science & technology increasing in the future, especially in fielding of cutting edge technologies and taking full advantage of the technical capabilities the agency has, “whether it is data storage, data access, data transmission, or just the huge progress we have made in the last several years and will continue into the future.” For example, Murrett points to the 1 terabyte (TB) drives NGA is now deploying in theater because of the relatively modest communications infrastructure that exists in Afghanistan. “The 1TB drives that are about the size of my wallet, they cost roughly $150. When you think about that, 1TB was a data center as recently as 10 years ago. Now with a very modest cost we are able to buy very compact 1TB data storage drives to disseminate large volumes of geospatial data that people rely upon.” And at $150 per drive, NGA is able to deploy them in large numbers, he adds. “That’s an example of the tremendous technology advances we have had and how we are taking advantage of [them].”