If concern about Hurricane Ernesto proved a bit overblown, a new level of preparedness got rolling in the form of the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency‘s (NGA) new Domestic Mobile Integrated Geospatial-Intelligence System (DMIGS).

Built on a Pierce fire engine chassis, the mobile, self-contained vehicle allows NGA analysts to drive to a crisis location to provide on-the-spot geospatial intelligence, crisis evaluation and remedial products.

Prompted by NGA’s experience in planning for and responding to hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, the agency designed a civilian version of an existing military unit over the past year to support homeland security missions including response to natural disasters.

"We had [Hurricane] Katrina and the question popped up" about how better to respond to such events, said John Patten, chief of operations for NGA’s Office for Global Support.

The NGA is a U.S. Department of Defense combat support agency and part of the U.S. intelligence community. Its mission is to provide timely, relevant and accurate geospatial intelligence in support of national security. Geospatial intelligence is the exploitation and analysis of imagery and geospatial information to describe, assess, and visually depict physical features and geographically referenced activities on Earth. NGA supports civilian and military leaders, and contributes to humanitarian efforts such as tracking floods and fires.

While the NGA’s focus previously had been centered on military and intelligence applications, the developments in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast brought it back home.

The hurricane’s aftermath "really got us out domestically in a big way" Patten said. "The hardware capability that we had designed was good, but not perfect for a domestic operator. … The thing we gained from last year was a dimension that didn’t really exist for the local, state and federal guys."

Now, in the event of a similar crisis, NGA has liaison officers working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to respond to the needs of first responders. With the combination of the DMIGS on the road and in place, Patten says the NGA can "get eyes on ground zero as quickly as possible through commercial satellite imagery and airborne" reconnaissance.

Using commercially supplied imagery allows first responders to grip and rip fresh printouts of the newest information, Patten said. "We can quickly receive and process to build customized products on demand," he said. "Whoever the first responders are, we are able to send new data and specialized projects [be they] neighborhoods, roads, infrastructure [both] before and after strikes. It’s our speed to deliver that forward… We have printing capability [where] we can print it and rip it and get it to helicopters, trucks and on foot."

As if begging an illustration of the DMIGS deployment speed, the unit was called into action on the very afternoon of its dedication.

With officials from the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) intently tracking Tropical Storm Ernesto’s progress in August through Guantanamo Bay and the Florida keys and anticipating its intensifying into a hurricane, the DMIGS was called into action straight off the lot.

With a crew of six — two drivers, two analysts and two technician who operate in alternating three-person shifts — Patten said the DMIGS rolled out of a General Dynamics contract facility in Chantilly, Va., Aug. 28, and headed for Florida. With a cruising speed of 65 mph, the unit covered approximately 700 miles in time to reach its Jacksonville staging area by noon the next day.

"After last year, FEMA is sensitive about being quick to a site," Patten said.

"Early on in the first mission orders, they requested NGA participation. DMIGS was the first vehicle to arrive in Jacksonville, and they became the FEMA representatives," though the drivers and operators were engineers from General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems.

When the storm blew over generally without incident, the crew underwent training on standby before returning to NGA headquarters in Bethesda, Md.

Patten said that after Hurricane Katrina struck last year, NGA had two standard MIGs which they mounted on flatbed trucks and transported to Fort Walton Beach, Fla., then to Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

The DMIGS features a modified Pierce chassis with a generator and two air-conditioning units mounted on top. Its interior is designed with easy access to computers and connectivity; with equipment upgrades and a chassis built for decades’ life, it looks to remain a permanent solution for the foreseeable future.

"Now we better understand what’s needed, and we can better anticipate what’s required," Patten said. "There was a lot of ‘Who are you?’ and ‘What do you do?’ Now we’re enabled to hit the ground running."

He added "we’ve worked with FEMA to understand the types of things they’ll require and the [institutional] hierarchy. We’re exercising it right now.

"The big difference is that the mission has been in support of [the Pentagon] and troops, either in joint task force of carrier battle group. The thing we gained from last year was a dimension that didn’t really exist for the local, state and federal guys."

–J.J. McCoy