In 1970, a blue-ribbon study of the nation’s mapping, charting and geodesy capabilities strongly recommended unification to increase efficiencies and economies. Coordinating these proposals with the services and agencies involved brought almost immediate and unanimous resistance. However, in the fall of 1971, President Richard M. Nixon issued a directive to reorganize the intelligence activities of the Department of Defense (DOD) and better manage resources, which solidified efforts to consolidate mapping, charting, and geodesy (MC&G) functions within a joint organization – the Defense Mapping Agency.

On February 22, 1972, a planning committee of eight met to create DMA as authorized by President Nixon’s directive. They had three weeks to devise a general planning concept, with guidance from the officer named to assume command of the agency upon standup, Lieutenant General Howard W. Penny, U.S. Army. 

With the consolidation of MC&G functions, DMA became one of the largest agencies in the DOD and one of the largest mapping agencies in the world. DMA Headquarters was organized as a compact team of approximately 190 individuals responsible for all agency policy, planning and programming authority, while the responsibility to customers and production issues rested with three primary production hubs: the Hydrographic Center in Suitland, Maryland, the Topographic Center in Bethesda, Maryland, and the Aerospace Center in St. Louis, Missouri. These centers represented those MC&G functions previously managed by the Navy, Army, and Air Force prior to the formation of DMA. The new agency also absorbed the Defense Mapping School at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and the Inter-American Geodetic Survey, initially headquartered at Fort Clayton in the Canal Zone and subsequently at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. 

The Defense Mapping Agency became operational on July 1, 1972. For the next twenty-four years, DMA played a critical part in many of the historical events and technological advances that helped define the era.  

During the Vietnam War, DMA produced more than 300 million topographic maps and charts to support combat operations. DMA also deployed teams from the Aerospace Center (DMAAC) to theater to support use of the Point Positioning Data Base (PPDB), which was designed and built by the DMA Topographic Center as the first deployable MC&G product capable of providing precise targeting support under combat conditions.

DMA provided extensive MC&G support during the Iran Hostage Crisis and produced a variety of products specifically tailored to the requirements of that situation. DMA and its entire crisis task force received Presidential citations for outstanding work during this crisis.

DMA was also in the vanguard of support to the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force (RDJTF), which was later reorganized as the U.S. Central Command in 1983, providing the mapping products needed to meet mission requirements in regions like the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia.

As a joint service agency, DMA became actively involved very early in developing priorities and plans for the cruise missile, a weapon system of the highest national priority.  The agency developed three basic digital data products for the missile responsible for keeping the missile on target, matching terrain features, establishing exact coordinates, and avoiding vertical obstructions. 

In 1973, DMA began collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Skylab, the first U.S. space station in orbit. DMA charts and data were also an integral part of the successful Space Shuttle missions, including projected Earth orbits, alternate landing sites and communications stations. The DMAAC created a variety of unique cartographic, photogrammetric, space navigation, and lunar products that served mission control as part of simulator training, supported astronaut crews during orbits and landings, and assisted recovery forces worldwide. Additionally, DMA produced a special series of photo charts, called visual observation graphics, which assisted both astronauts and cosmonauts in scientific experiments.

In 1982, DMA established the Special Program Office for Exploitation Modernization and began development of the Digital Production System (DPS), in order to modernize production and embrace the digital revolution. The DPS was capable of producing MC&G products using digital imagery and computer-assisted techniques and was utilized by all three of DMA’s production centers, with the expectation to reduce production time by 50% and product completion time by 75% across DMA.

DMA also helped develop and maintain the World Geodetic System (WGS), which became the standard framework for DMA products and worldwide DOD operations. Originally begun in the 1950s, DMA’s major revision in 1984 (known as WGS 84) continues to be updated by NGA today and remains the recognized and accepted global reference system for use in cartography, geodesy and satellite navigation, WGS 84 continues to be the reference system used by the Global Positioning System (GPS).

As DMA’s mission continued to expand and evolve, so did its physical footprint. In 1978, DMA’s Hydrographic Center and Topographic Center merged under the name DMA Hydrographic/Topographic Center (HTC), providing DMA mapping, charting, and geodetic products with increased efficiency in production to promote flexibility in operations. The creation of HTC provided the ability to balance production between hydrographic and topographic programs and to utilize common databases and unified technology.

During the same period, the separate distribution elements within DMA’s hydrographic, topographic, and aerospace production centers were consolidated into the Office of Distribution Services (OSD, renamed as the Combat Support Center in 1987). It was through OSD that DMA’s millions of MC&G products were distributed to the military services, other DOD components, Federal civil agencies, mariners, and authorized foreign governments. 

Following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990, the United States and a coalition of 34 nations pursued diplomacy while preparing for potential war. Operation Desert Storm began on January 16, 1991, and DMA quickly pivoted to 24/7 operations as employees worked 10- to 12-hour shifts, updating existing charts and maps of the Persian Gulf, as well as producing several new products. 

DMA worked alongside the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)-led Operational Intelligence Crisis Center to collect and disseminate open-source imagery of Iraq used for target study and battle damage assessment purposes. A variety of aircraft relied on DMA-produced precision guided munitions points and over 1,000 of these requests were filled during the conflict, along with requests for specially-designed data to support the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile, which was used for the first time in combat during the Gulf War. DMA hydrographic charts were also being provided to approximately 50 ships in the Gulf region, supporting efforts ranging from sealift ships to aircraft carriers.

DMA specialists also deployed to field locations to provide digital terrain elevation and feature data support to the advanced radar predictions and mission-planning systems utilized by the Strategic Air Command.

In November, 1995, the United States helped broker an end to hostilities in Bosnia by inviting the parties at war to participate in direct negotiations at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. To support these negotiations, a team of more than 50 cartographers and terrain visualization specialists from DMA and the U.S. Army Topographic Engineering Center digitally mapped the disputed regions in near-real time, creating three-dimensional visual imagery that allowed negotiators to “walk” through disputed terrain as they debated potential boundaries.

The power and flexibility of the technology and the skill of DMA technicians gave the political decision-makers the confidence needed to reach agreement, resulting in the Dayton Peace Accords. Within weeks of this success, President Clinton would join Secretary of Defense William Perry, Director of Central Intelligence John Deutch and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army General John Shalikashvili in endorsing the creation of a new integrated imagery and mapping agency.

In 1996, DMA became the largest component of this new National Imagery and Mapping Agency. The careful and, at times, difficult integration of imagery analysis with MC&G has made GEOINT both possible and powerful.  The Defense Mapping Agency is, in every respect, an essential and significant part of NGA’s heritage.