WASHINGTON — Intelligence professionals at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency are maintaining their focus on mission objectives despite ongoing staff reductions, the agency’s director said March 10.
“There is nothing like mission to help people stay focused no matter what else is going on,” Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth told attendees at the Satellite 2025 conference in Washington. “That said, they’re humans, they have stresses.”
The remarks come as federal intelligence and defense agencies navigate a period of significant transition and uncertainty as the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) takes action to reduce the federal workforce. Defense and space industry executives who work with federal agencies have privately described workplace environments where anxiety about job cuts has become “palpable” and potentially detrimental to productivity.
Whitworth, who has led the agency since 2022, expressed pride in how NGA’s workforce is handling mandated reductions, though he declined to specify exact numbers of employees who have departed under the “Fork in the Road” voluntary buyout program or through involuntary terminations.
“We’re doing our best to be very communicative as leaders and make sure that they know everything we know,” Whitworth said regarding communications with staff about workforce reduction plans.
The NGA, which employs approximately 14,000 people including 9,000 civilians, serves dual roles as both a Department of Defense combat support agency and a member of the U.S. intelligence community. Based in Springfield, Virginia, with additional major facilities in Missouri, the agency’s core mission involves collecting, analyzing and distributing geospatial intelligence to support national security and other government functions.
Whitworth noted that members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence appeared “pretty inspired by that professionalism” during a recent visit to receive an intelligence update.
AI acceleration amid workforce changes
As the agency manages workforce realignment, it is simultaneously accelerating efforts to integrate artificial intelligence into analysts’ workflows. This push aims to increase productivity and expedite intelligence delivery to decision makers, building upon foundations established by Project Maven, an initiative launched in 2017 to apply AI to drone footage and satellite imagery analysis.
“We’re talking this year about a true acceleration of AI,” Whitworth said.
To support this vision, the admiral announced three key executive appointments to AI-related positions:
Mark Munsell, a longtime agency official specializing in digital innovation and AI, has been named director of AI standards.
Trey Treadwell, previously NGA’s associate director for capabilities and chief acquisition executive, will serve as director of AI programs.
Retired Army Col. Joe O’Callaghan has joined NGA as defense intelligence senior leader and director of AI mission. O’Callaghan, who previously served as fire support officer for the Army’s XVIII Airborne Corps, brings experience from units that pioneered AI applications on the battlefield under Project Maven.
O’Callaghan will be stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to maintain proximity to Army operators, said Whitworth.
Despite the potential for efficiency gains, Whitworth cautioned that implementing AI technologies requires substantial investment and computing resources due to what agency officials have described as a “data deluge” — the exponentially growing volume of satellite imagery and other intelligence sources that require increasingly rapid analysis.
“I will tell you that it doesn’t come cheaply, especially when you start generating the type of inferences and the number of detections that we do,” Whitworth said.
The agency now faces the challenge of scaling up successful AI initiatives like Project Maven to handle ever-increasing data volumes while navigating workforce transitions during the early months of the new administration.
