The Defence Intelligence Fusion Centre (DIFC) is based at

RAF Wyton Royal Air Force Wyton or more simply RAF Wyton is a Royal Air Force List of Royal Air Force stations, station near St Ives, Cambridgeshire, St Ives, Cambridgeshire, England. The airfield is decommissioned and the station is now under the comm ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

. Largely created from the staff of the National Imagery Exploitation Centre (formerly known as the Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre (JARIC)) and then known for several years as the Defence Geospatial Intelligence Fusion Centre, it can trace its history back to clandestine reconnaissance operations at the beginning of the Second World War by Sidney Cotton on behalf of

MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

and then MI4, and the formation of the Allied Central Interpretation Unit at RAF Medmenham (sister to Bletchley Park). Today, DIFC's role has grown beyond just

imagery intelligence Imagery intelligence (IMINT), pronounced as either as ''Im-Int'' or ''I-Mint'', is an intelligence gathering discipline wherein imagery is analyzed (or "exploited") to identify information of intelligence value. Imagery used for defense intell ...

. Part of the Joint Forces Intelligence Group (JFIG) within

Defence Intelligence Defence Intelligence (DI) is an organisation within the United Kingdom intelligence community which focuses on gathering and analysing military intelligence. It differs from the UK's intelligence agencies (MI6, GCHQ and MI5) in that it is an ...

, DIFC's primary role is to support Defence planning, current operations and the intelligence assessment process. DIFC still provides specialist imagery intelligence, but also conducts multi-disciplinary intelligence fusion for the armed forces and other UK Government partners. The integrated multi-disciplinary Task Groups at DIFC use data and reporting from various sources (including

satellite imagery Satellite images (also Earth observation imagery, spaceborne photography, or simply satellite photo) are images of Earth collected by imaging satellites operated by governments and businesses around the world. Satellite imaging companies sell im ...

), together with other advanced technologies, to provide critical information and over-watch to tactical, operational and strategic decision makers. DIFC is a joint service and civilian organisation under the command of an RAF Group Captain.

History

Following a series of successful covert air

reconnaissance In military operations, military reconnaissance () or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, the terrain, and civil activities in the area of operations. In military jargon, reconnai ...

operations run by the United Kingdom's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) prior to World War II, the Photographic Development Unit (PDU) was established on 19 January 1940 (codenamed MI4) and later renamed Photographic Interpretation Unit (PIU) on 11 July 1940. Through a series of War Ministry reorganisations, the PIU was renamed the

Central Interpretation Unit MI4 was established in 1915 as a section of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (United Kingdom), Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI). Section 4 was the designation for the Topographic Section, General Staff, later the Geographical ...

(CIU) on 7 January 1941 and changed again to the Joint Air Photographic Intelligence centre (UK) JAPIC Kin August 1947. On 17 December 1953 the unit was given the name of Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre K- JARIC K The JARIC Photographic Wing moved to Brampton near Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire from locations at

Medmenham Medmenham () is a village and civil parish in south-west Buckinghamshire, England. It is on the River Thames, about southwest of Marlow, Buckinghamshire, Marlow and east of Henley-on-Thames. The parish also includes Danesfield, a housing estate ...

, Nuneham Park, Wyton and

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

in 1956 where they were joined by the Joint School of Photographic Interpretation (JSPI) in December. In 1980 the (UK) was dropped from the name to reflect the closing of the Cyprus-based JARIC (ME), later JARIC (NE) in April 1975. On 19 April 1996 the unit ceased to fall under operational control of the Royal Air Force and became an agency under the operational control of the Director General Intelligence and Geographic Requirements, taking a more centralised government role within the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

. On 1 April 2000 the unit stopped functioning as an independent agency and merged with Military Survey into the Defence Geographic and Imagery Intelligence Agency (DGIA). On 10 October 2005 the JARIC name ceased to be an acronym to reflect the fact that its sources of imagery had shifted away from those provided by UK Air Reconnaissance platforms to be predominantly satellite imagery based. The descriptor ‘The National Imagery Exploitation Centre’ was added to the JARIC title to better explain JARIC's role, not just within the Ministry of Defence but within the wider UK intelligence community. On 10 June 2006, DGI (as it became after agency status was removed) was renamed the Intelligence Collection Group (ICG) and, after moving under the Joint Forces Command (JFC) on 1 April 2012, was renamed to Joint Forces Intelligence Group (JFIG) which consisted of the Defence Geographic Centre (DGC) based at Feltham, Middlesex, the Joint Signals Support Organisation (JSSO), based at RAF Digby, the Joint Aeronautical and Geographic Organisation (JAGO) at Hermitage and RAF Northolt and JARIC-The National Imagery Exploitation Centre based at RAF Brampton. On 13 July 2012, after the formal retiring of the title JARIC, the unit was renamed the Defence Geospatial Intelligence Fusion Centre (DGIFC). The Joint Forces Intelligence Group (JFIG) achieved Full Operating Capability in 2014, the culmination of the PRIDE (Wyton) Programme. The commander of JFIG said at the ceremony on 17 September 2014:

Relocation to Pathfinder Building at RAF Wyton (PRIDE Programme)

In 2013, DGIFC relocated from RAF Brampton to the Pathfinder Building at RAF Wyton creating a multi-intelligence, open plan environment aimed at improving collaboration and innovation changing its name to DIFC on 17 Sept 2014. DGIFC moved to RAF Wyton as part of the Programme to Rationalise and Integrate the Defence Intelligence Estate (PRIDE), which enabled Defence Intelligence, and the Joint Forces Intelligence Group in particular, to further improve and enhance support to operations and strategic threat assessments. The programme relocated the Joint Forces Intelligence Collection Group (JFIG -HQ) from Feltham, DGIFC - from RAF Brampton, as well as 42 Engineer Regiment (Geographic) from Denison Barracks in Hermitage and Ayrshire Barracks in Germany, to RAF Wyton in Cambridgeshire.

Areas of expertise

DIFC's role has evolved from the more traditional photographic analysis to encompass more technical intelligence disciplines such as:

IMINT (IMagery INTelligence)

IMINT is an intelligence gathering discipline which collects information via satellite and

aerial photography Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other flight, airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography. Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wi ...

. DGIFC is involved in all aspects of imagery analysis from basic activity reporting to advanced scientific-based MASINT analysis.

MASINT (Measurement And Signatures INTelligence)

MASINT is scientific and technical intelligence derived from the analysis of data obtained from sensing instruments for the purpose of identifying any distinctive features associated with the source, emitter or sender, to facilitate the latter's measurement and identification. DIFC is the UK's only provider of ‘imagery derived MASINT’ otherwise known as AGI or Advanced Geospatial Intelligence.

GEOINT (GEOspatial INTelligence)

GEOINT is an intelligence discipline comprising the exploitation and analysis of geographically determined information. GEOINT sources include imagery and mapping data, whether collected by commercial or military satellites, or by other capabilities such as UAV (Unmanned Airborne Vehicle) or

reconnaissance aircraft A reconnaissance aircraft (colloquially, a spy plane) is a military aircraft designed or adapted to perform aerial reconnaissance with roles including collection of imagery intelligence (including using Aerial photography, photography), signals ...

Satellites used

Carbonite-2

In 2017-18 the MOD invested £4.5 million in a programme to deliver high-quality imagery and 3D video footage from space, with the

Surrey Satellite Technology Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, or SSTL, is a company involved in the manufacture and operation of small satellites. A spin-off company of the University of Surrey, it is presently wholly owned by Airbus Defence and Space. The company began ...

(SSTL) Carbonite-2 satellite being the first technology demonstrator. Carbonite-2 uses

commercial off-the-shelf Commercial-off-the-shelf or commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) products are packaged or canned (ready-made) hardware or software, which are adapted aftermarket to the needs of the purchasing organization, rather than the commissioning of ...

(COTS) components and has a mass of about 100 kg, and was launched on the

Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is an expendable medium-lift launch vehicle designed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was developed to allow India to launch its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite ...

PSLV-C40 from

Satish Dhawan Space Centre Satish Dhawan Space Centre – SDSC (formerly Sriharikota Range – SHAR) is the primary spaceport of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), located in Sriharikota, Tirupati district, Andhra Pradesh. The spaceport is located on an isl ...

in India on 12 January 2018. Data from Carbonite-2 is processed by the centre's Geospatial Intelligence staff. This programme is part of the RAF's vision of a future constellation of imagery satellites. On 18 July 2019, Defence Secretary

Penny Mordaunt Dame Penelope Mary "Penny" Mordaunt (; born 4 March 1973) is a British former Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who served as Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons from 2022 until 2024. She was the Memb ...

announced another small satellite demonstrator would be launched within a year, working toward producing high-resolution video to support battle awareness. A joint UK and US defence and industry group named Team ARTEMIS will work on the project.

Tyche

On 16 August 2024, the UK's first

Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance ISTAR stands for Military intelligence, intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance. In its macroscopic sense, #ISTAR, ISTAR is a practice that links several battlefield functions together to assist a combat force in employ ...

(ISR) satellite was launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9. Named

Tyche Tyche (; Ancient Greek: Τύχη ''Túkhē'', 'Luck', , ; Roman mythology, Roman equivalent: Fortuna) was the presiding tutelary deity who governed the fortune and prosperity of a city, its destiny. In Classical Greek mythology, she is the dau ...

, it is a SSTL Carbonite-class

microsatellite A microsatellite is a tract of repetitive DNA in which certain Sequence motif, DNA motifs (ranging in length from one to six or more base pairs) are repeated, typically 5–50 times. Microsatellites occur at thousands of locations within an organ ...

with a mass of about , carrying a high-resolution optical payload delivering sub-1 metre imagery of wide ground areas, including video.  It is the first satellite of the £127 million MINERVA programme, the precursor of an operational constellation under the ISTARI programme, planned to be running by 2031. Tyche has a planned five-year lifespan orbiting at an altitude of about in a

sun-synchronous orbit A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), also called a heliosynchronous orbit, is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time. More technically, it is ...

. Belgian company Rhea and American

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...

are developing ground-based software to control the ISR satellites.

References

Bibliography

External links

Cyber Security

National Collection of Aerial Photography

National Intelligence Machinery
{{Authority control 2012 establishments in the United Kingdom British intelligence agencies Huntingdonshire Intelligence analysis Intelligence Corps (United Kingdom) Military units and formations established in 2012 Military units and formations in Cambridgeshire Geospatial intelligence organizations