National Photographic Interpretation Center
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🏢 Organization
Contents 9
| Type | Organization |
|---|---|
| Also known as | NPIC |
| On the Timeline | 2 events, 1962–1994 |
The National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC) was the US government's centre for analysing photographs from spy planes and satellites. It was created in January 1961 as a joint project of the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency within the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology, and was merged into the new National Imagery and Mapping Agency (now the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency) in 1996.[1] It is best known for finding Soviet missiles in Cuba in 1962.[1][4] In UFO history it is known chiefly for quietly helping the University of Colorado's Condon study in 1967, on condition that its role was never acknowledged.[3][4] It also features in claims that gun-camera films of UFOs were sent to it.[5]
History
Origins
NPIC grew out of the work of Arthur C. Lundahl, a Chicago-trained geologist and photographer who had studied aerial photographs of Japanese targets in the Second World War.[4] After the war he was chief engineer of the photogrammetry division of the Naval Photographic Interpretation Center. That separate Navy unit had the same initials and later became the Naval Reconnaissance Technical Support Center.[4] In 1953 he moved to the CIA to lead its Photographic Interpretation Division, which went on to analyse the products of the U-2 spy plane.[4] He combined photo interpretation, data processing, photogrammetry, graphic arts and technical analysis into one organisation.[4]
Shortly before leaving office in January 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorised NPIC as a joint CIA–DIA project. Its main job was imagery analysis.[1][2] Lundahl directed it until he retired in June 1973, when he received the National Security Medal. He was succeeded by John J. Hicks.[4]
U-2 and satellites
- The U-2. According to Lundahl's associate Dino Brugioni, U-2 photographs analysed by Lundahl's team from July 1956 helped dispel fears of a Soviet "bomber gap". The team also covered the Suez Crisis, Tibet, the Taiwan Strait islands and Lebanon until a U-2 was shot down over the Soviet Union in May 1960.[4]
- Satellites. On 19 August 1960 Lundahl showed his staff the first images from a reconnaissance satellite camera, flown on Discoverer 14.[4] NPIC later analysed film from Corona satellite canisters.[1]
Cuban Missile Crisis
In October 1962 NPIC analysts, working from U-2 photographs and Corona film, found that the Soviet Union was basing missiles in Cuba. Their analysis informed US policy and operations during the crisis.[1] Some of the images were declassified, and Ambassador Adlai Stevenson showed them to the United Nations Security Council.[1] Lundahl briefed Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy and senior military and diplomatic officials.[4]
Merger
In 1996 NPIC's mission and functions were merged with the Defense Mapping Agency, the Central Imagery Office and the imagery elements of the DIA, the National Reconnaissance Office and other offices to form the National Imagery and Mapping Agency. This centralised responsibility for imagery and mapping.[1] NIMA was later renamed the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.[1] The earlier version of this article dated the merger to 1 October 1996 and the renaming to 2003. These dates are not given in the sources read here.
The Condon study (1967)
The CIA historian Gerald Haines described NPIC's help to the Air Force-funded University of Colorado UFO study led by Edward Condon:[3]
- The approach. In February 1967 Brigadier General Edward Giller, the Air Force coordinator, proposed an informal liaison through which NPIC would give the committee technical advice on photographs of alleged UFOs.
- "A window". Lundahl and the CIA's Deputy Director for Intelligence, R. Jack Smith, agreed as a way of "preserving a window" on the new effort. They wanted the CIA and NPIC to keep a low profile, to take no part in writing the committee's conclusions, and to have no NPIC work formally acknowledged.
- The visit. On 20 February 1967 Condon and four members of his team visited NPIC.[3] According to the Wikipedia account of Lundahl, they were Richard Love, David Saunders, William Price and Thomas Ratchford of the Air Force.[4] Lundahl told them any NPIC work must not be identified as CIA work and would be strictly technical. NPIC would write no reports and draw no conclusions, but could take measurements from photographs.[3][4] The group was briefed on equipment "not available elsewhere" and was impressed.[3]
- Zanesville. In May 1967 the group returned to hear NPIC's analysis of UFO photographs taken at Zanesville, Ohio, which debunked the sighting. Condon remarked that for the first time a scientific analysis of a UFO would stand up to investigation.[3]
- The Durant report. At the same meeting the CIA agreed that the committee could release the full Durant report on the 1953 Robertson Panel with only minor deletions.[3]
The Condon Report, released in 1969, concluded that further extensive study of UFOs was unwarranted.[3] The earlier version of this article said the report did not mention the CIA's help. That fits Haines's account of the agreed ground rules, though he does not state it directly.[3] See Condon Report.
UFO claims
The UAP timeline published with Michael Shellenberger's 2024 congressional testimony lists several claims involving NPIC and Lundahl. None is confirmed in the sources read here.
- Gun-camera films (1962). The ufologist Richard H. Hall said a "former Project Blue Book chief", possibly Lieutenant Colonel Robert Friend, told him that gun-camera films of jet encounters with UFOs were routinely sent to NPIC. The source said key evidence was held there and its existence not acknowledged.[5] See Richard Hall.
- Presidential study (1968). A study attributed to Frank Rand, Lundahl, General James Stewart, Brockway McMillan and Kelly Johnson is said to have told President Lyndon Johnson that UFOs exist and are under intelligent control.[6] See Lyndon Johnson's informal UFO study.
- No black project. In 1989 Jacques Vallée wrote that Lundahl was among several people who had told him they did not think a secret UFO project was active.[7]
- Briefings rumour. The researcher Grant Cameron said in 1994 that Lundahl was rumoured to have briefed at least three presidents on UFOs, used satellites to look for them, and directed photo analysis for the 1953 Robertson Panel.[8]
- Washington metal. Vallée has said that Lundahl told him about a piece of strange metal said to have been shot off a UFO during the 1952 sightings over Washington, D.C.[4]
The Robertson Panel claim is not supported by the sources read here, which date Lundahl's move to the CIA to 1953 and his first meeting with a UFO study group to 1967.[4]
On the UAP Timeline
- Gun-camera films sent to the CIA claim (1962) — Researcher Richard Hall says jet gun-camera UAP films were routinely sent to the CIA.
- Arthur Lundahl and presidential briefings (1994) — Researcher Grant Cameron says the CIA's Arthur Lundahl may have briefed presidents on UAP.
References
- National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "Jan. 18, 1961: National Photographic Interpretation Center", National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (archived) · web.archive.org · archived copy
- Gerald K. Haines, "CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947–90", Studies in Intelligence (1997) · sgp.fas.org · archived copy
- Arthur C. Lundahl — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- UAP timeline published with Michael Shellenberger's 2024 congressional testimony, entry for 1962 · oversight.house.gov
- UAP timeline (Shellenberger testimony), entry for 1968 · oversight.house.gov
- UAP timeline (Shellenberger testimony), entry for 17 September 1989 · oversight.house.gov
- UAP timeline (Shellenberger testimony), entry for 1994 · oversight.house.gov
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency”, “Arthur C. Lundahl”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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