With today's present limited capability to share GEOINT collected on the battlefield with all users, USJFCOM and NGA recently signed a formal memorandum of understanding (MOU), which defines activities that will result in more effective GEOINT information-sharing across the services and user-domains.

USJFCOM and NGA's partnership would "provide information to forces that today do not necessarily have access to information that they could clearly benefit from, whether it's ground soldiers in Iraq, Navy forces on ship, or pilots in a cockpit," said John Greene, NGA's lead on the JGA project. "Within classification constraints, the goal is to provide information to people beyond the Beltway and command level."

For example, the Army needs information for its Future Combat System, the Air Force needs flight chart information for pilots, and the Navy needs information for the electronic bridge, but the "information compiled for Army boots on the ground may be useful for pilots" and "if a special operations unit has located an element and has a way to transmit information back, pilots would want this information as a real-time update, so they don't drop ordnance on the wrong target," Greene said.

"Over the course of time, the national, operational and tactical lines have blurred to the extent that what's good for the President may be good for the platoon leader. Some of the same information that's briefed to the President is collected by the guy in the field," said Greene.

According to Greene, a major benefit to be reaped from the partnership is the creation of a common operational picture (COP).

"It's making sure the ground, air, and naval elements get the information they need so that everyone is able to operate off the same COP," said Greene.

As part of the USJFCOM/NGA official MOU, signed in December, the two organizations agreed to bring services, commands and agencies together in seeking common solutions to GEOINT issues that provide a joint capability. Common solutions will be sought in-

� bringing GEOINT to "the last tactical mile,"

� developing architectures and concepts of operations that connect the National System for Geospatial-Intelligence with currently unavailable or incompatible service systems and processes, and

� defining joint doctrine and tactics, techniques and procedures for the management and application of GEOINT at the strategic, operational and tactical levels of war.

"We need to provide warfighters accurate and timely imagery, geospatial information and fused GEOINT products-all of which are necessary for their mission," said Navy Cmdr. Joe Ellenbecker, USJFCOM lead on the JGA project.

To accomplish this, two subordinate commands have partnered with USJFCOM as the joint force integrator and with NGA as the GEOINT Functional Manager.

According to Ellenbecker, there are many pieces to the JGA partnership within USJFCOM and its subordinate commands.

"Cross directorate participation in JGA has been critical to its early successes, including the development of a Concept of Operations and the development of 'as is' and 'to be' architecture documents," said Ellenbecker.

To work more effectively and efficiently, several NGA representatives, including Greene, are located in USJFCOM workspaces along with the command's workforce of military, government civilians and contractors.

Working in USJFCOM spaces provides a command-level visibility. "It is beneficial to attend USJFCOM briefings for situational awareness and to respond to anything that might relate to NGA," said Greene. "And I have the ability to reach back to NGA for support."

Other steps include a capabilities demonstration within the USJFCOM Joint Experimentation directorate and discussion about future training, optimal architecture and the necessary data standards for ensuring interoperability and usability of data on different customer sets.

"We don't want to build another box," said Greene. "To the extent possible and feasible within fiscal constraints, we want to use existing capabilities and technologies. -The services have invested a lot of money in their own architectures and we're not asking them to undo what they have done."

The partnership on paper is between USJFCOM and NGA, but in reality, the partnership is broader. "It involves all the services and combatant commands-they are the beneficiaries, as well as supporting agencies like Defense Information Services Agency," said Greene.

"We are at the forefront and trying to bring other interested parties into the equation to make this a success," said Ellenbecker.

"Ultimately, this project is about saving lives," said Ellenbecker.

Presently, the partnership is concentrating on U.S.-only data integration; international geospatial partnerships will be addressed in the future.

Related Links
U.S. Joint Forces Command
National Geospatial Intelligence Agency