If you’ve never heard of the National Reconnaissance Office, you’re not alone. Established by the Defense Department in August of 1960 and tasked with the mission to “develop and operate the world’s most capable and innovative overhead reconnaissance systems to collect intelligence for U.S. national security and to support disaster relief and humanitarian efforts,” the very existence of the NRO was kept secret by the government until it finally declassified the organization in 1992.
“For a good 30 [or so] years, the NRO was very much a secret organization. You couldn’t even say whether NRO [existed],” NRO Director Chris Scolese explained today during a fireside chat at the Global Aerospace Summit 24 in downtown Washington.
During the brief chat, Scolese discussed the NRO’s mission, explaining how the organization partners with the U.S. intelligence community, DOD and international partners to acquire satellite intelligence that is then distributed to several different organizations.
“We look, listen and sense; and that gives us a global view,” Scolese said. “We see the whole Earth all the time, and we make that information that we collect available to many organizations that serve a lot of different purposes.”
In addition to providing information to intelligence community agencies and DOD to assist its warfighters, Scolese said that the NRO also provides information to numerous civil agencies.
“When there’s a natural disaster, [the NRO is] there because we’re looking from up above, and we can provide that information very quickly to the first responders that need it,” Scolese said.
Noting that the fireside chat was taking place on the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Scolese mentioned that the NRO lost three people that day.
“And I’m sure many people in the audience … probably [also] know people who were either lost or know people who lost people; and that’s one of the reasons that keeps us [at the NRO] working every day,” Scolese explained.
He also added that NRO members realize the information they provide can prevent a future attack.
For all the NRO’s successes, Scolese said there are challenges to operating in the space domain that the organization has to vigilantly stay on top of.
“The challenge we have is to stay ahead of the people, organizations and nations that want to keep us from delivering the information,” Scolese said.
“So that requires us to constantly be innovating not only in technology … but we also have to innovate in our way of how we work with industry, how we work with academia … how we work with other departments … and other government agencies.”
As the chat wound down, Scolese talked about how he views the quality of people working for and with the NRO as being the biggest benefit of the entire organization no longer being classified.
“Now that we’re no longer secret, we can recruit … the best and brightest to come work with us,” he said.
“Without them, we couldn’t do the great things that we’re doing each and every day.”
