NIMA Changes Name to National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
November 24, 2003

Today, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency was officially renamed the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

The fiscal 2004 Defense Authorization Act authorized this change. The new name is the latest step in the agency’s ongoing transformation efforts to ensure the nation’s warfighters and senior policymakers receive the best geospatial intelligence possible in support of national security.

“In 1996, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) was chartered to bring together a variety of imagery and geospatial analysis disciplines into a totally new discipline — geospatial intelligence, or GEOINT,” said the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) Director retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper Jr. “Geospatial intelligence is what we do, and our agency’s name now properly reflects that reality.”

The agency is both a combat support as well as national intelligence agency whose mission is to provide timely, relevant and accurate geospatial intelligence, or GEOINT, in support of our national security. GEOINT is the exploitation and analysis of imagery and geospatial information to describe, assess and visually depict physical features and geographically referenced activities on the Earth. Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has major facilities in the Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia, and St. Louis, Mo., areas with support teams worldwide.

For more information, contact the NGA Office of Corporate Relations, Public Affairs at (301) 227-2057.