Foreword
The
National Commission for the Review of the National Reconnaissance
Office (NRO) is one of several Commissions that have been chartered
in recent years to review the various intelligence and security
institutions charged with maintaining the national security of the
United States. The Commission's review is significant because the
NRO provides unique intelligence capabilities that are vital to
maintaining our national security.
This formerly secret spy agency develops, acquires and operates
the most sophisticated satellite reconnaissance systems in the world.
These satellites play a crucial role in protecting U.S. national
security interests at home and around the world.
However, since the end of the Cold War, NRO programs previously
viewed as vital to the nation's survival have become immersed in
much of the normal governmental process. As a result, they no longer
enjoy the personal involvement of the President or his senior advisors.
NRO program budgets, along with other intelligence program budgets,
have been constrained and modernization has been delayed for several
years. This circumstance has taken its toll on national reconnaissance
capabilities. Moreover, this trend comes at a time when the plethora
of threats facing the United States has never been more complex.
Additionally, the proliferation of commercial imaging technologies
and other public sources of information are providing our adversaries
with unprecedented insight within our national borders, as well
as into our overseas activities.
Equally problematic, widespread knowledge of the NRO's existence
and public speculation on how NRO satellites are used has aided
terrorists and other potential adversaries in developing techniques
of denial and deception to thwart U.S. intelligence efforts. Similarly,
other technologies, such as fiber optic communications, render certain
NRO capabilities obsolete. Add to this the fact that the number
of continuing U.S. military commitments and other U.S. interests
around the globe that require continuing support is stressing the
capacity of U.S. reconnaissance assets, and the result is a prescription
for a potentially significant intelligence failure.
The Commission believes that these circumstances and the risks they
pose to the security of the United States are so important that
the results of its review of the NRO should be set forth to the
maximum extent possible in this unclassified Report. In it, the
Commission has underscored the need for leadership, direction and
participation by the President in setting priorities and ensuring
that adequate resources are provided to enable the NRO to develop
innovative space-based or space-related solutions to meet the most
difficult intelligence problems facing the United States.
Equally important is the need for a close and sustained working
relationship between the Secretary of Defense and the Director of
Central Intelligence who share in the management and oversight of
the NRO. These individuals are key to ensuring that the NRO maintains
technological superiority, despite the inevitable pressures to continue
maintaining current capabilities at the expense of essential modernization.
The Commission believes it is vital that this review of the NRO
and the resulting recommendations be considered as part of a comprehensive
and overarching national security policy and strategy. This will
help ensure that the proper array of intelligence capabilities is
available for the continued survival and security of the United
States in the 21st Century.