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The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's directory, Vice Admiral Robert Murrett, stongly emphasized, several times during his address at the GEOINT Symposium, that no other agency in the U.S. government supports and is committed to the health of the commercial satellite imagery (CSI) industry than his agency. "The array of sensors we have is getting more and more important all the time; Panchromatic sensors are our bread an butter but other sensors will become important like hyperspectral and LiDAR," said Murrett. "We need to tip our hat to our domestic partner," he said referring to the successful launches of GeoEye-1 by GeoEye and WorldView-1 by DigitalGlobe.
In other comments, Murrett said that the NGA's foundation level data cannot be taken for granted referring to the geodetic control, controlled imagery and elevation data that must first be prepated before any analyses can be perfomed. Having data that is readily retrieved and rapidly adaptable to circumstances on the ground to support warfighters is a key mission of the NGA.
budget reductions that will ensue as the next administration takes office after next weeks U.S. presidential election. "I am quite concerned that this conference wont be as big, because this community will go on a diet," said Rich Haver of Northrop Grumman, the master of ceremonies of the days activities. "I think the next three or four years will be a tough fight. We need to redouble our efforts to make sure that the next administration doesnt, rebalance the budget on the back of the intelligence community."