Geospatial intelligence plays a vital role in the Intelligence Community and many other federal and local government agencies. The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency contains several departments within that contribute to the overall success of GEOINT. The Defense Mapping Agency established in 1972 consolidated the United States military cartography agencies. Over the history over the NGA, there have been many changes to continue to enable successful use of the explosion of GEOINT to the military and other government strategic planning.
The National Reconnaissance Office is the primary contributor to satellite imagery. As noted before, the implementation of satellite imagery has vastly changed the use of GEOINT. With the continued establishment of geospatial intelligence, a unified system for GEOINT was necessary. As a result of this, the U.S. National System for Geospatial Intelligence was established in an effort to collaborate the use and analysis of GEOINT. As the field of GEOINT has grown throughout the world, allied countries established a group to coordinate intelligence, this is called the Five Eyes. This consists of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Effectively utilizing and collaborating geospatial intelligence has been essential to the success of strategic planning. The field will continue to grow as new disciplines are established and discovered.