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Appendix A

List of Recommendations

Overall Finding and Conclusion

  • The Commission concludes that the National Reconnaissance Office demands the personal attention of the President of the United States, the Secretary of Defense and the Director of Central Intelligence. It must remain a strong, separate activity, with a focus on innovation, within the Intelligence Community and the Department of Defense. Failure to understand and support the indispensable nature of the NRO as the source of innovative new space-based intelligence collection systems will result in significant intelligence failures. These failures will have a direct influence on strategic choices facing the nation and will strongly affect the ability of U.S. military commanders to win decisively on the battlefield.

NRO Mission

  • The Secretary of Defense and Director of Central Intelligence must direct that the NRO mission be updated and focused as a first priority on the development, acquisition and operation of highly advanced technology for space reconnaissance systems and supporting space-related intelligence activities, in accordance with current law.

  • The Secretary of Defense and Director of Central Intelligence should determine the proper roles for the NRO, National Security Agency, National Imagery and Mapping Agency, and Central MASINT Organization in Tasking, Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination activities.
NRO Technological Innovation
  • The President of the United States, the Secretary of Defense and the Director of Central Intelligence must pay close attention to the level of funding and support for the NRO Director's research, development and acquisition effort.

  • The Secretary of Defense and Director of Central Intelligence should ensure common understanding of the NRO's current and future capabilities and the application of its technology to satisfy the needs of its mission partners and customers.

Office of Space Reconnaissance

  • The Secretary of Defense and the Director of Central Intelligence should establish a new Office of Space Reconnaissance under the direction of the Director of the NRO. The Office should have special acquisition authorities, be staffed by experienced military and CIA personnel, have a budget separate from other agencies and activities within the National Foreign Intelligence Program, be protected by a special security compartment, and operate under the personal direction of the President, Secretary of Defense and Director of Central Intelligence.

The Secretary of Defense--Director of Central Intelligence Relationship

  • The President must take direct responsibility to ensure that the Secretary of Defense and Director of Central Intelligence relationship regarding the management of the NRO is functioning effectively.

  • The President should direct the development of a contemporary statement defining the relationship between the Secretary of Defense and Director of Central Intelligence with regard to their management of the NRO.

Balanced Response to Customer Demands

  • The Secretary of Defense and the Director of Central Intelligence must work closely together to ensure that proper attention is focused on achieving the appropriate balance between strategic and tactical requirements for NRO systems, present and future.

  • The Presidential Decision Directive (PDD-35) that establishes priorities for intelligence collection should be reviewed to determine whether it has been properly applied and should remain in effect or be revised.

  • The imagery intelligence and signals intelligence requirements committees should be returned to the Director of Central Intelligence in order to ensure that the appropriate balance and priority of requirements is achieved each day.

  • The Secretary of Defense and Director of Central Intelligence should undertake an educational effort to ensure that Intelligence Community members and customers are properly trained in the requirements process, the cost of NRO support, and in their responsibilities in requesting NRO support.

Defense Space Reconnaissance Program (DSRP)

  • The Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Director of Central Intelligence, should re-establish the Defense Space Reconnaissance Program as a means of funding tactical military requirements for NRO systems and architectures.

Increased Resource and Budgetary Flexibility

  • The Director of Central Intelligence should be granted greater latitude to redirect funds among intelligence collection activities and agencies in order to respond most effectively to the specific types of issues that arise in NRO programs.

  • Transfers greater than $10 million would continue to require the concurrence of the affected Secretary or agency head. This could be coupled with a provision to allow a Secretary or agency head who has objections to such transfers the opportunity to appeal the Director of Central Intelligence's decision to the President.

  • The requirement that such transfers be made known to the appropriate congressional committees should not be altered.

NRO Technical Expertise

  • The Secretary of Defense and the Director of Central Intelligence should jointly establish NRO career paths to ensure that a highly skilled and experienced NRO workforce is continued and sustained.

Increased Launch Program Risks

  • The NRO Director, with the support of the Air Force Materiel Command and Space and Missile Systems Center, should develop a contingency plan for each NRO program or set of programs. These plans should describe risks, contingency options and failure mitigation plans to minimize satellite system problems that might result from satellite or launch vehicle failures.

  • The Secretary of Defense and Director of Central Intelligence should establish independent teams to conduct pre-launch assessments of non-traditional areas of risk. These teams should be made up of recognized space launch experts and be granted whatever special authorities and accesses are required to perform their duties.

  • The Commission to Assess United States National Security Space Management and Organization should evaluate the need for an improved organization structure to provide launch capability and operations for the deployment and replenishment of NRO and DoD satellites.

Commercial Satellite Imagery

  • A clear national strategy that takes full advantage of the capabilities of the U.S. commercial satellite imagery industry must be developed by the President, Secretary of Defense and Director of Central Intelligence.

  • The strategy must contain a realistic execution plan--with timelines, a commitment of the necessary resources and sound estimates of future funding levels.

  • The strategy also should remove the current fiscal disincentives that discourage use of commercial imagery when it is technically sufficient to meet user needs.

  • The NRO should work with NIMA to develop a new acquisition model for commercial imagery that will help create the predictable market necessary for the industry to become a reliable supplier to the U.S. Government. The acquisition model should include provisions for the pricing of imagery to the user from either the commercial or Government sources that reflect the cost of acquiring such images to the U.S. Government.

  • The Secretary of Defense and the Director of Central Intelligence should develop a strategy that recognizes the threat posed to the United States by the likely availability of commercial space imagery to opponents of the United States.

NRO Airborne Reconnaissance Responsibilities

  • The NRO should participate jointly with other agencies and departments in strategic airborne reconnaissance development. Specifically, the NRO should supply system engineering capabilities and transfer space system technologies to airborne applications.