SIGINT Activity Designator

[3] The leaked Boundless Informant reporting screenshot showed that it summarized 504 active SIGADs during a 30-day period in March 2013.

[5] It takes the general form of an alphanumeric designator normally composed of a two- or three-letter prefix followed by one to three numbers.

An additional alphabetic character can be added to denote a sub-designator for a subset of the primary unit, such as a detachment.

The declassified SIGAD for the NSA Direct Support Unit (DSU) from the Naval Security Group (NSG) on the USS Pueblo patrol involved in the incident was USN-467Y.

Lastly, the SIGADs beginning with USN were operated by the United States Navy's Naval Security Group (NAVSECGRU).

In the case of the USS Maddox, naval Direct Support Units (DSUs) used the SIGAD USN-467 as a generic designator for their missions.

Thus, SIGAD USN-467N specifically designates the USS Maddox patrol involved with the Gulf of Tonkin incident.

This 2005 law also created twelve joint bases by merging adjacent installations belonging to different services in an effort to reduce costs and improve efficiencies.

A joint base would have a primary SIGAD in the general form of USJ-NNN, where NNN are numeric characters.