NSA Locations In The United States
The secretive spy agency, the National Security Agency (NSA), has greatly expanded it’s footprint within the United States over these past years. Especially in their apparent efforts of massive collection of electronic data.
The following is a list of known NSA locations within the United States, acquired from publicly available sources of information…
Ft. Meade, Maryland
National Security Agency (NSA) Headquarters
Location
NSA Headquarters is located 15 miles SW of Baltimore on Route 32 just south of the Baltimore/Washington Parkway, on Fort Meade.
Coordinates
39.111748, -76.775635
Other Information
NSA headquarters are housed in two high-rise office structures and in other structures on the base, including an estimated 10 acres of which are underground.
At least 20,000 employees work for the NSA at Fort Meade, making it the largest employer in the county, one of the largest employers in Maryland, and the largest employer of mathematicians in the country.
The NSA’s headquarters is believed to house one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world.
In 2006 it was reported that the NSA at Ft. Meade had apparently maxed out capacity of the Baltimore-area power grid, one of the NSA’s single biggest expenses.
Bluffdale, Utah
NSA Data Center
Location
NSA Bluffdale is located off Redwood Road (68) at Camp Williams (Army National Guard), near Bluffdale, Utah, between Utah Lake and Great Salt Lake.
Coordinates
40.425685, -111.934134
Other Information
The new Utah “Data Center” is a MASSIVE complex designed to store extremely large amounts of data, estimated to be on the order of 3 – 12 exabytes or higher.
The megaproject was scheduled to have been completed in late-2013 at a cost of $2 billion, with an additional $2 billion for hardware, software, and maintenance.
The structure is said to have a footprint of 1.5 million square feet.
NSA-Bluffdale is said to require 65 megawatts of electricity provided by Rocky Mountain Power, costing about $40 million per year.
The facility is said to use 1.7 million gallons (6500 tons) of water per day (computer cooling).
The data center is alleged to be able to process “ALL forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and internet searches, as well as all types of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital ‘pocket litter’ “.
San Antonio, Texas
NSA Texas Cryptologic Center
Location
The NSA in San Antonio is located at Loop 410 and Military Drive at the Medina Annex, Lackland Air Force Base.
Coordinates
29.447321, -98.640634
Other Information
Interestingly, the NSA facility (Texas Cryptology Center) is just down the road from a new Microsoft data center. The NSA waited to confirm Microsoft’s opening there before moving forward with constructing it’s own facility (which was a former chip-fabrication plant).
Apparently one major part of the decision for the location was also the independent power grid in Texas, confirming NSA’s very real concern about access to power. The electricity is provided by CPS Energy, the United States’ largest municipally owned utility company.
The facility in San Antonio houses NSA’s TAO hacking unit (Tailored Access Operations), and is considered to be the intelligence agency’s top secret weapon. It maintains its own covert network, infiltrates computers around the world and even intercepts shipping deliveries to plant back doors in electronics ordered by those it is targeting.
Augusta, Georgia
NSA Georgia Cryptologic Operations Center
Location
NSA Georgia is located at Fort Gordon, about 10 miles WSW of Augusta off of Gordon Highway.
Coordinates
33.412236, -82.168494
Other Information
NSA Georgia is a cryptologic facility employing approximately 4,000 trained in linguistics and cryptology.
The estimated $1 billion complex occupies 160 acres with a facility footprint of 604,000 square feet with an initial building cost of $286 million.
The NSA Georgia facility opened in 2012 spread out over three levels holding more than 2,500 workstations, 47 conference rooms, 22 ‘caves’, a 200 seat rotunda operations center ‘video wall’, a 2,800-square-foot fitness center and a 300-seat auditorium.
It’s mission is to “conduct continuous security operations on selected targets in support of national and warfighter intelligence requirements using remoting technologies.”
Aurora, Colorado
NSA Aerospace Data Facility
Location
The NSA operation is located at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, about 10 miles east of Denver at a facility commonly known as the Aerospace Data Facility.
Coordinates
39.717778, -104.777222
Other Information
This NSA complex gathers intelligence collected from the geostationary satellites, as well as signals from other spacecraft and overseas listening posts.
About 850 NSA employees track the satellites, transmit target information, and download the intelligence haul.
Oak Ridge, Tennessee
NSA Oak Ridge
Location
NSA (Building 5300) is located within the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Campus.
Coordinates
35.930835, -84.312254
Other Information
Scientists and computer engineers with top security clearance are building the world’s fastest supercomputers and working on cryptanalytic applications and other secret projects.
The new facility on the East Campus of Oak Ridge National Laboratory called the ‘Multiprogram Computational Data Center’ is a major Internet Surveillance laboratory which apparently works in tandem with the massive NSA data center in Bluffdale, Utah.
In Building 5300 resides one of the world’s fastest supercomputers named ‘Jaguar’ (speed of 2.33 petaflops). Apparently the NSA has recently made a major “enormous” breakthrough with an even faster computer modified specifically for cryptanalysis.
The NSA believes it’s on the verge of breaking a key encryption algorithm — opening up hoards of data.
Oahu, Hawaii
NSA Hawaii Regional Operations Security Center
Location
It is located on Kunia Road between Kunia Camp and Wheeler Army Airfield in central Oahu, Hawaii.
Coordinates
21.522920, -158.011959
Other Information
The NSA Central Security Service’s Hawaii Regional Security Operations Center employs 2,700 and is used to gather and analyze intelligence from U.S. interest areas, such as the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
The facility cost $318 million, is approximately 250,000 square feet, and is constructed on 70 acres at NCTAMS PAC headquarters.
The center includes operations and data management facilities (OPS), a command center, operations briefing center, data analysis section, mission planning areas, administrative offices and video-teleconferencing rooms.
Sugar Grove, West Virginia
NSA Sugar Grove Research Station
Location
It is located on the 117-acre Navy base at Sugar Grove in the mountains of West Virginia.
Coordinates
38.514963, -79.279992
Other Information
Code named “Timberline”, apparently one of three “signals-intelligence activity designators,” or SIGADs in the United States, this NSA site is said to be a key station of the ECHELON communications network to process electronic telecommunications.
It also intercepts all international communications entering the Eastern United States.
