The Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation (AGO) is an
Australian government
The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the pr ...
intelligence agency
An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, Intelligence analysis, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy obj ...
that is part of the
Department of Defence responsible for the collection, analysis, and distribution of
geospatial intelligence
In the United States, geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) is intelligence about the human activity on Earth derived from the exploitation and analysis of imagery, signals, or signatures with geospatial information. GEOINT describes, assesses, and visu ...
(
GEOINT) in support of
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
's defence and national interests. The AGO is one of six agencies that form the
Australian Intelligence Community
The Australian Intelligence Community (AIC) and the National Intelligence Community (NIC) or National Security Community of the Australian Government are the collectives of statutory intelligence agencies, policy departments, and other government ...
.
History
Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation (DIGO) was originally formed in 2000 when the Australian Imagery Organisation, the Defence Topographic Agency and the Directorate of Strategic Military Geographic Information were brought together to form the DIGO.
DIGO was renamed Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation (AGO) on 3 May 2013. AGO is part of the Australian Department of Defence.
Operations
During 2014, the AGO assisted in the search for the remains of
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370/MAS370) was an international passenger flight operated by Malaysia Airlines that disappeared from radar on 8 March 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia to its planned de ...
.
The operations of the agency are subject to independent
statutory
A statute is a law or formal written enactment of a legislature. Statutes typically declare, command or prohibit something. Statutes are distinguished from court law and unwritten law (also known as common law) in that they are the expressed wil ...
oversight by the
Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security.
See also
References
Attribution
*
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External links
AGO homepageOpen Australia Search
Parliamentary records mentioning 'geospatial'.
Australian intelligence agencies
Commonwealth Government agencies of Australia
Defence Strategic Policy and Intelligence Group
Geospatial intelligence organizations
1982 establishments in Australia
Government agencies established in 1982
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