National Reconnaissance Office
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| National Reconnaissance Office | |
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| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1961 |
| Headquarters | Chantilly, Virginia |
| Employees | Approximately 3,000 [1] |
| Annual Budget | Classified |
| Agency Executives | Scott F. Large, Director John T. Sheridan, Deputy Director |
| Parent agency | Department of Defense |
| Website | |
| www.nro.gov | |
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), located in Chantilly, Virginia, is one of the 16 intelligence agencies in the U.S. It designs, builds and operates the reconnaissance satellites of the United States government.[2] It also coordinates collection and analysis of information from airplane and satellite reconnaissance by the military services and the Central Intelligence Agency.[3] It is funded through the National Reconnaissance Program, which is part of the National Foreign Intelligence Program. The agency is part of the Department of Defense.
The NRO works closely with its intelligence and space partners, which include the National Security Agency (NSA), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the United States Strategic Command, Naval Research Laboratory and many other high level agencies and organizations. It has been proposed that the NRO share imagery of the United States itself with the newly-created National Applications Office for purposes of domestic law enforcement.[4] The NRO is responsible for operating Ground Stations around the world which collect and distribute intelligence gathered from reconnaissance satellites.
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[edit] History
The NRO was established on August 25, 1960 as a classified agency to develop the nation's revolutionary satellite reconnaissance systems.[5]
It was endorsed by Dwight D. Eisenhower in February 1958 after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first orbital satellite[citation needed]. The need for the agency obtained greater urgency when Gary Powers was shot down in a Lockheed U-2 on May 1, 1960.
The NRO's first photo reconnaissance satellite program was called "Corona". The Corona program, whose existence was declassified February 24, 1995, existed from August 1960 to May 1972, although the first test flight occurred on February 28, 1959. The Corona system used (sometimes multiple) film capsules dropped by satellites, which were recovered mid-air by military craft. The first successful recovery from space (Discoverer XIII) occurred on August 12, 1960, and the first image from space was seen six days later. The first imaging resolution was 8 meters, which was improved to 2 meters. Individual images covered, on average, an area of approximately 10 by 120 miles (16 by 190 km). The last Corona mission (the 145th), was launched May 25, 1972, and this mission's last images were taken May 31, 1972.
From May 1962 to August 1964, the NRO conducted 12 mapping missions as part of the "Argon" system. Only seven of these missions were successful.[citation needed]
In 1963, the NRO conducted a mapping mission using higher resolution imagery, as part of the "Lanyard" program. The Lanyard program flew one successful mission.[citation needed]
Missions of the NRO subsequent to 1972 are still classified, and portions of many earlier programs remain unavailable to the public.
The existence of the NRO was declassified by the Deputy Secretary of Defense, as recommended by the Director of Central Intelligence on September 18, 1992.[citation needed]
A Washington Post article in September 1995 reported that the NRO had quietly hoarded between $1 billion and $1.7 billion in unspent funds without informing the Central Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon, or Congress. The CIA was in the midst of an inquiry into the NRO's funding because of complaints that the agency had spent $300 million of hoarded funds from its classified budget to build a new headquarters building in Chantilly, Virginia a year earlier. The presence of the classified new headquarters was revealed by the Federation of American Scientists who obtained unclassified copies of the blueprints filed with the building permit application. After 9/11 those blueprints were apparently classified. The reports of an NRO slush fund were true. According to former CIA general counsel Jeffrey Smith, who led the investigation: "Our inquiry revealed that the NRO had for years accumulated very substantial amounts as a 'rainy day fund.'"[citation needed]
In 1999 the NRO embarked on a project with Boeing entitled Future Imagery Architecture to create a new generation of imaging satellites. A November 11, 2007 investigative report by The New York Times found that in 2002 the project was far behind schedule and would most likely cost $2 billion to $3 billion more than planned, according to NRO records. The government pressed forward with efforts to complete the project, but after two more years, several more review panels and billions more in expenditures, the project was killed in what the Times report calls "perhaps the most spectacular and expensive failure in the 50-year history of American spy satellite projects."[citation needed] [6]
In January of 2008, the government announced that a reconnaissance satellite operated by the NRO would make an unplanned and uncontrolled re-entry into the earth's atmosphere in the next several months. Satellite watching hobbyists said that it was likely the USA-193, built by Lockheed Martin Corporation, which failed shortly after achieving orbit in December of 2006.[7] On February 14, 2008, the Pentagon announced that rather than allowing the satellite to make an uncontrolled re-entry, it would instead be shot down by a missile fired from a Navy cruiser.[8] The intercept took place on February 21, 2008. [9]
[edit] Organization
The NRO is part of the Department of Defense. The Director of the NRO is appointed by the Secretary of Defense with the consent of the Director of National Intelligence, without confirmation from Congress. Traditionally, the position was given to either the Undersecretary of the Air Force or the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space, but with the appointment of Donald Kerr as Director of the NRO in July 2005 the position is now independent.
The NRO is staffed by personnel from the CIA, NSA, the military services, and civilian defense contractors.
The Agency has the following directorates:- SIGINT Systems; Communications Systems; IMINT systems; and Advanced Systems and Technology.[10] (SIGINT=signals intelligence; IMINT=imagery intelligence.)
[edit] "Strategic War Gaming Division"
According to a pamphlet advertising a security conference in 2002, the NRO has a "Strategic Wargaming Division", then headed by John Fulton, who was "on staff for the CIA".[11]
[edit] Spacecraft
The NRO spacecraft include:
- Keyhole series—photo imaging:
- KH-1, KH-2, KH-3, KH-4, KH-4A, KH-4B Corona (1959–1972)
- KH-5—Argon (1961–1962)
- KH-6—Lanyard (1963)
- KH-7—Gambit (1963–1967)
- KH-8—Gambit (1966–1984)
- KH-9—Hexagon and Big Bird (1971–1986)
- KH-10—Dorian (cancelled)
- KH-11—Crystal and Kennan (1976–1988)
- KH-12—Ikon and Improved Crystal (1990?–)
- KH-13—(1999?)
- Samos—photo imaging (1960–1962)
- Poppy ELINT program (1962–1971) continuing Naval Research Laboratory's GRAB (1960–1961)
- Jumpseat (1971-1983) and Trumpet (1994-1997) SIGINT
- Lacrosse/Onyx—radar imaging (1988–)
- Canyon (1968-1977), Vortex/Chalet (1978–1989) and Mercury (1994-1998)—SIGINT including COMINT
- Rhyolite/Aquacade (1970–1978), Magnum/Orion (1985–1990), and Mentor (1995-2003)—SIGINT
- Quasar, communications relay
- Misty/Zirconic -- stealth IMINT
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ NRO Factsheet (Word Document) (English) 1. Retrieved on 2007-01-15.
- ^ Welcome to the NRO (English). Retrieved on 2007-01-15.
- ^ "NRO Provides Support to the Warfighters", National Reconnaissance Office, press releases, April 28, 1998.
- ^ U.S. Reconnaissance Satellites: Domestic Targets - Documents Describe Use of Satellites in Support of Civil Agencies and Longstanding Controversy. National Security Archive, The George Washington University (2008-04-11). Retrieved on 2008-04-12.
- ^ Jeffrey Richelson (1990). America's Secret Eyes in Space. Harper & Row.
- ^ Philip Taubman. "Failure to Launch: In Death of Spy Satellite Program, Lofty Plans and Unrealistic Bids", The New York Times, 2007-11-11. Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
- ^ John Schwartz. "Satellite Spotters Glimpse Secrets, and Tell Them", The New York Times, 2008-02-05. Retrieved on 2008-02-05.
- ^ David Stout and Thom Shanker. "U.S. Officials Say Broken Satellite Will Be Shot Down", The New York Times, 2008-02-14. Retrieved on 2008-02-14.
- ^ U.S. Department of Defense (February 20, 2008). "DoD Succeeds In Intercepting Non-Functioning Satellite". Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-20.
- ^ :: Welcome to the National Reconnaissance Office ::
- ^ America's Leadership Challenge (pre-event publicity pamphlet for National Law Enforcement And Security Institute [NLSI] conference "Homeland Security: America's Leadership Challenge", Sept. 6, 2002).
[edit] External links
- NRO official website
- National Security Archive: The NRO Declassified
- Memo of Declassification of NRO
- Additional NRO information from the Federation of American Scientists
- America's secret spy satellites are costing you billions, but they can't even get off the launch pad U.S News and World Report, 8/11/03; By Douglas Pasternak
- Agency planned exercise on Sept. 11 built around a plane crashing into a building, from Boston.com
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