WASHINGTON — Robert Cardillo, currently the No. 3 official in the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, will take the reins of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) beginning in October, succeeding Letitia Long, who is retiring, according to a June 2 press release from the Defense Department.

Long became the fifth director of the NGA, which collects, analyzes and distributes geospatial information to the military and intelligence community, in August 2010. She previously worked as deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

In a keynote speech in April at the Geoint conference in Tampa, Florida, Long said the NGA had reached a tipping point in pursuing its long-term goals. 

“We have pursued the [director of national intelligence]’s highest priority — intelligence integration,” she said. “We have pursued our vision to put the power of [geospatial intelligence] in the hands of users with total integration.”

The press release credited Long with overseeing the NGA’s shift from providing static products, such as maps, to services that “enable users to access information that provides ‘time and place’ context in a variety of formats, in real time, for users on all security domains.” 

The NGA is also developing what it calls the “Map of the World,” which is an integrated collection of data, including geospatial data, from sources throughout the intelligence community. 

Cardillo’s current title is deputy director of national intelligence for intelligence integration. He is a former a deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

“As much I’ve enjoyed working with the [director of national intelligence] to help him integrate our [intelligence community], I look forward to teaming with the talented men and women of NGA as we continue to improve our analytic service to NGA’s wide-range of military and civilian customers,” Cardillo said in the release. 

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Mike Gruss is a senior staff writer for SpaceNews. He joined the publication in January 2013 to cover military space. Previously, he worked as a reporter and columnist for The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va. and The Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, Ind. He...