September 30, 2025
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Vice Admiral Frank Whitworth, Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), paints a picture of an agency that is both modernizing and energizing its workforce. In a wide-ranging conversation with Francis Rose on Fed Gov Today, Whitworth shares how NGA is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and commercial imagery to keep pace with today’s rapidly changing intelligence environment.
Whitworth highlights the dramatic rise of open-source intelligence across the intelligence community. “The government’s using more open-source intelligence than it ever has before,” he says, noting that NGA now partners closely with the commercial sector to deliver unclassified insights quickly. One example is a portal NGA built with industry that allows 400,000 vetted users — including
Ukrainians — to access commercial images in near real time. “Early in this conflict, it was very clear that we needed to be able to articulate in unclassified ways exactly what’s happening on the ground,” Whitworth explains. This transparency, he adds, helps counter disinformation and “articulate the truth.”
Whitworth also addresses how the culture inside NGA and the broader intelligence community has evolved. Years ago, there were philosophical and tactical debates about whether relying on commercial sources was the right move. Today, he believes, that impasse is over. “Whatever that impasse was, we probably… yes, the short answer is, I think we’ve moved along.”
A centerpiece of the discussion is NGA’s “Year of NGAI,” an initiative aligning programs, standards, and workforce development around AI and ML. The agency, Whitworth says, has created three new directorates: one for AI mission, one for AI programs, and one for AI standards. “We just need to make sure that there are no hobby shops going on here,” he remarks, underscoring the need for discipline and consistency in developing AI tools.
Morale is rising as NGA rolls out these new capabilities. Analysts are eager to finish their work completely instead of leaving tasks undone. “They don’t like going home with a little bit left, maybe 20 to 40% left that they didn’t get to,” Whitworth notes. He shares an example where NGA and commercial partners solved a major data-labeling challenge in just four days — a task he once thought might take a year. The result, he says, has been a measurable boost to workforce enthusiasm.
Looking ahead, Whitworth stresses that NGA’s innovations will benefit the entire GEOINT enterprise, not just the agency. “We take this leadership of GEOINT enterprise very seriously,” he says. “Everyone who has investment in GEOINT will, you know, at some point benefit from this particular application.”
Whitworth’s message is clear: by combining technology, standards, and an empowered workforce, NGA is positioning itself to stay ahead of adversaries and deliver the truth — every time.
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