[nikcub]

NRO has such a large budget because they design, build and launch a ton of satellites, high-altitude equipment and a number of ground and space-based comms networks. They provide that raw data to CIA, NSA & DIA who do analysis.

NGIA do GEOINT - think of them as the government's own Google Earth but with a ton more detail and live or near-live tracking in areas of interest. They provide maps to troops on the ground, determine what the NRO satellites should be looking at and merge all they produce (optical, IR, etc. imaging) and merge it with their geospatial and cartography data.

CIA, NSA, DIA along with NRO and NGIA are the big five. Think of the later two as tech departments for the intelligence community.

CIA, DIA, NSA and State (and others) will analyze ISIS propaganda using data from all these orgs and convert data to intelligence.

[lovelearning]

With all that capability, I can't help wondering why they underestimated IS so badly.

[jorgis]

All the satellites in the world, and we still can't read the human heart.