“GEOINT: The Foundation of Intelligence”

So let’s talk about security. And first and foremost on everyone’s mind when it comes to national and international security is undoubtedly Ukraine. GEOINT has been foundational in understanding and dealing with the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Hopefully most of you saw the media reports about the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, carrying around what’s come to be known as “the big green map” everywhere he goes. He brings it with him to all his meetings in the Pentagon, to White House meetings with President Biden and the National Security Council, and he brings it with him on foreign trips, such as the five-day tour of NATO front-line nations he conducted in early March – which prompted the media reports about his big green map.

An article in the Washington Post stated: “Maps are the most basic tools of military strategy. They allow commanders to chart a course through the fog of war; they organize the chaos of the battlefield.”

General Milley’s “big green map” is updated regularly, and it’s classified, or I’d show it to you right now. And there’s far more than just GEOINT on it. It’s a product that’s been thoroughly coordinated with the rest of the US Intelligence Community, and our allies. But GEOINT is its foundation – providing context and clarity to the chaotic, complex battlefield. And the Post article summed it up like this: “In this awful conflict, the intelligence data compiled in the map has been America’s most potent weapon.”

###

Read the rest of Vice Adm. Sharp's remarks below.