The Georgia Cryptologic Center (GCC) or NSA Georgia is a U.S.

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

(NSA) and

Central Security Service The Central Security Service (CSS) is a combat support agency of the United States Department of Defense which was established in 1972 to integrate the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Service Cryptologic Components (SCC) of the United Sta ...

(CSS) facility located within

Fort Gordon Fort Gordon, formerly known as Fort Eisenhower and Camp Gordon, is a United States Army installation established southwest of Augusta, Georgia in October 1941. It is the current home of the United States Army Signal Corps, United States Army Cy ...

, formally known as Fort Eisenhower, located outside of

Augusta, Georgia Augusta is a city on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The city lies directly across the Savannah River from North Augusta, South Carolina at the head of its navigable portion. Augusta, the third mos ...

. The facility opened on March 5, 2012, at a cost of $286 million. The GCC's facilities have the capacity to employ up to 4,000 personnel. Its primary focus is on

signals intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the act and field of intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly u ...

intercepts from

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

, and

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

. The facility is known by the codename "Sweet Tea".

Operations

According to the NSA, the Georgia Cryptologic Center "specializes in working closely with military customers to understand their operations, their requirements and their culture to ensure that signals intelligence is tailored and responsive to the needs of the warfighter." The Georgia Cryptologic Center is staffed by both civilian contractors and by military personnel from the United States Army Intelligence and Security Command's 706th Military Intelligence Group, also stationed at Fort Gordon, who specialize in

. When the facility opened, the proposed ratio of military to civilian personnel was approximately 3:1. As of 2020, Fort Gordon is also the headquarters of

United States Army Cyber Command The U.S. Army Cyber Command (ARCYBER) conducts information dominance and cyberspace operations as the Army service component command of United States Cyber Command.The official regulation, General Order (DA GO 2016-11) was signed by the Secretar ...

(ARCYBER), which works closely alongside NSA Georgia. The facilities's personnel include Tailored Access Operations (TAO) units and Persian-language translators.

History

Before opening the facility at Fort Gordon, the NSA/CSS had a smaller Regional Security Operations Center located at Fort Gordon. Named the Gordon Regional Security Operations Center, it was established in 1994 and operated under this name until it was renamed to NSA/CSS Georgia in June 2005. Construction on the Georgia Cryptologic Center facility began in March 2007, During construction the facility was not referred to as an NSA facility in any documentation and was referred to as "Sweet Tea". The facility opened in 2012. Press were invited to the opening ceremony, though cameras were not allowed at or near the facility. The facility made international headlines in 2017 when

Reality Winner Reality Leigh Winner (born December 4, 1991) is an American U.S. Air Force veteran and former NSA translator. In 2018, she was given the longest prison sentence ever imposed for an unauthorized release of government information to the media af ...

, a civilian contractor employed at the Georgia Cryptologic Center, was arrested after sending a top-secret report about

Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections The Russian government conducted Foreign electoral intervention, foreign electoral interference in the 2016 United States elections with the goals of sabotaging the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign, presidential campaign of Hillar ...

to the news organization '' The Intercept''.

References

{{National Security Agency National Security Agency facilities Buildings and structures in Augusta, Georgia 2012 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)

Operations

History

See also

References