What happens way over there has a lot to do with what happens right in St. Louisans' back yard. Perhaps the least-touted and least-understood aspect of global intelligence and warfare is what happens behind the walls of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which is building a $1.8 billion new western headquarters northwest of downtown. If St. Louisans are typical of many Americans, they dismiss a lot of news from overseas as having little or nothing to do with them. What they don't realize is that thousands of their fellow St. Louisans play key roles in determining U.S. military and intelligence responses, with thousands more support jobs opening around the city to support the NGA's growing mission.

There's no way to know exactly what role the St. Louis facility has in overall NGA operations, but it's safe to conclude from the attention it receives from top U.S. defense and intelligence officials that the role is major. The agency is so secretive that even its budget is classified. Any mention of the NGA in news stories tends to come from obscure publications like SpyTalk, SpaceNews and BreakingDefense.com.

But from parsing details of various major global military events, including the current war in Ukraine, it's safe to say that the NGA's role has been so crucial that Ukraine would not have been able to beat back the invasion by far-stronger and better-equipped Russian forces without the kinds of pinpoint intelligence on troop movements and equipment deployments that the agency's spy satellites provide.

Consider the Ukrainian attack last month that sank the guided missile cruiser Moskva, the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet. Russia has warned of World War III should the United States become directly involved in Ukraine. So American officials have been tight-lipped about any role U.S. intelligence or military assets played in the Moskva's sinking — the biggest humiliation Moscow has suffered so far in the war.

But unless Ukrainian forces were incredibly lucky with their shot-in-the-dark missile launch from miles away, they required the kinds of over-the-horizon satellite monitoring and targeting capabilities that only agencies like the NGA can provide. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, responding to an NBC News report about U.S. intelligence assistance with the sinking, insisted the Pentagon had no prior knowledge of the Ukrainians' plans.

The 2011 Navy SEAL Team 6 raid on al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, is another example of how intelligence that only the NGA could obtain helped guide special operations forces to their target and relay the results, including live video of bin Laden's killing, back to the White House.

Like the code of silence that guides the SEALs' work, what happens at the NGA stays at the NGA. St. Louisans can be certain, nonetheless, that the city owns a little piece of many major news-making military victories abroad.

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