The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a combat support agency of the federal government of the United States with the primary mission of collecting, analyzing, and distributing geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) in support of national security. NGA was formerly known as the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) and is part of the Department of Defense (DoD). In addition, NGA is a key component of the United States Intelligence Community.
NGA headquarters is located in Springfield, Virginia and operates major facilities in the St. Louis, Missouri area, as well as support and liaison offices worldwide. The NGA was headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland until 2011, when NGA consolidated many of its regional activities as part of the BRAC into a new campus near Ft. Belvoir in Fairfax County, Virginia. The NGA campus, at 2.3 million square feet (214,000 m²), is the third-largest government building in the Washington Metropolitan Area, and its atrium is spacious enough to hold the Statue of Liberty. Its budget is classified.
The NGA was credited by White House and military officials with providing critical information in support of Operation Neptune's Spear on May 2, 2011, in which the United States Military raided a secret compound housing Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, at which time he was killed in action.
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