Welcome to the Monday Morning News Kick Off post on got geoint? It has been a whirlwind few days for the GEOINT community. Late last week, General Clapper was confirmed as the new Director of National Intelligence. And, today, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is hosting a ceremony that will honor the elevation of Letitia A. Long as its new director. You all may recall got geoint? was instrumental in announcing this news back in February. Stay tuned for more coverage of Letitia Long as members of the editorial staff of got geoint? will be covering the ceremony at the NGA today. So, with that, as we always say, fire up that second cup of coffee and read on.
First Woman to Head Major US intelligence Agency
The United States has had three female secretaries of state — but until now has never had a woman lead one of its 16 major intelligence agencies. Letitia A. Long is being elevated Monday to director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in a ceremony at the agency’s half-built, high-tech campus in Springfield, Va. The “Jetsons”-style rounded wedge of buildings is rising from a vast construction site at Fort Belvoir. The NGA’s staff, now spread across the Washington metropolitan area, is slated to relocate there by fall 2011. Long’s 32-year career has led to a series of senior management positions: deputy director of Naval Intelligence, deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence and, most recently, second in command at the Defense Intelligence Agency. Read the full AP story here.
DoD Ends Performance Pay for Most Intel Workers
The Pentagon is scrapping plans to link pay raises for intelligence employees to their performance, according to an Aug. 5 memo from outgoing Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence James Clapper. Clapper said that except for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency — which has been under its own pay-for-performance system for more than a decade — intelligence employees at Defense will be placed in a grade structure similar to the General Schedule. Those employees will receive regular increases to their base pay each year. Clapper said Defense Secretary Robert Gates decided to halt pay-for-performance after reviewing a report from the National Academy of Public Administration that concluded that implementation of the Defense Civilian Intelligence Personnel System (DCIPS) was rushed and flawed, that it gave better ratings and raises to higher-ranking employees, and that employees have lost faith in the system. The report also concluded there was no evidence that the pay-for-performance system at NGA has improved employee productivity or agency performance. Read the Federal Times “News Digest” here.
DigitalGlobe Secures $3.55 Billion EnhancedView Agreement with National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA)
DigitalGlobe today announced that it has entered into a $3.55 billion agreement with NGA, under the EnhancedView procurement, effective September 1, 2010 upon expiration of the company’s NextView Agreement. The agreement provides for DigitalGlobe to supply satellite imagery deliveries from the WorldView satellite constellation under a Service Level Agreement (”EnhancedView SLA”) in a total amount of $2.8 billion. The agreement also provides for up to $750 million for value added products, infrastructure enhancements and other services. Read the full press release here.
GeoEye Awarded National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Contract
On August 6, 2010, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) gave an award under the NGA’s EnhancedView program to GeoEye Imagery Collection Systems Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of GeoEye, Inc. The award provides for the engineering, construction and launch of the GeoEye-2 satellite, and the design and procurement of associated ground station equipment. Pursuant to the contract terms, NGA will contribute up to 40% of the overall construction costs of the GeoEye-2 program, subject to certain contract limitations. Read the full StreetInsider article here.
Dimmer View of Earth
When Stanford climate scientist Christopher Field looks at visual feeds from a satellite monitoring deforestation in the Amazon basin, he sees images streaked with white lines devoid of data. The satellite, Lansat 7, is broken. And it’s emblematic of the nation’s battered satellite environmental monitoring program. The bad news: It’s only going to get worse, unless the federal agencies criticized for their poor management of the satellite systems over the past decade stage a fast turnaround. Many, however, view that prospect as a long shot. “I would say our ability to observe the Earth from space is at grave risk of dying from neglect,” said Field, director of the Department of Global Ecology at the Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford University. Inez Fung, a noted climatologist at UC Berkeley, was shocked as she scanned a recent federal report warning of impending gaps in the country’s ability to monitor Earth from space. Read the full San Jose Mercury News article here.
Happy Monday!
No comments:
Post a Comment