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BYEMAN 

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~ NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE 

WASHINGTON, D.C. 

THE NRO STAFF February 2, 1968 

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BYEMAN 

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Il R· Ii, If-l 

MEMORANDUM FOR €:EffERAL DEnG 

SUBJECT: The NRO Command and Control Switching Center 

Problem: 

To give you a progress report on the NRO Command and Control Switching Center. 

Background: 

On October 26, 1967, we prepared a briefing on the progress 

which had been made in setting up an NRO Command and Control 

Switching Center. We summarized the status as follows: 

Facilities 

People 

Equipment 

Going well. Completion of construction 

scheduled for March 1968. 

Personnel (computer programmers, 

operators, crypto maintainers, tech 

controllers) are arriving on schedul e. 

Operational/ software people were to 

have been on board in August 1967, 

but are being ret ained in regular AFCS 

billets, pending procurement of equipment. Could result in slip in personnel training. 

All peripheral equipment contracted 

for, or availability assured. Funds 

for UNIVAC 494 computer system 

available. Procurement action held 

in abeyance, pending approval of 

waivers by Deputy Secretary of Defense. 

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Switching Center 

Availability Date 

Present Status: 

October 1968 

The present status of facilities and equipment remains essentially the same. The personnel training problem we mentioned previously is becoming larger and beginning to press us. Our assigned 

and incoming computer programmers (many of whom are in the professtional pay category and in short supply in AFCS) would normally 

go into training with the computer contractor and would "graduate" 

at the same time as the computer is delivered. In the absence of a 

computer contract, we have kept these programmers constructively 

employed in a series of ad hoc training programs, made available 

to us by UNIVAC. Unfortunately, we have now exhausted our good 

will at UNIVAC and must develop another solution to our training 

problem. 

Alternative Courses of Action: 

The options open to us are few in number and three of them are 

essentially hypothetical. 

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1. Ignore the problem. This alternative is untenable, since it 

misuses pro pay airmen, alienates the AFCS, and is, essentially, the 

short road to a confrontation with the Inspector General. 

2. Assign the programmers to other duties. This alternative 

calls for detailing our programmers to work outside their skill areas 

in, say, the neighboring Andrews AFB communications activity. It 

is not desirable, since (1) the pro pay of these men would terminate 

summarily with their exit from programming, (2) these men are on 

a skill control roster and their day-to-day activities are followed 

closely, (3) we would be breaking faith with General Stoney, who is 

enthusiastically supporting the Switching Center, and (4) the airmen 

would undoubtedly seek (and find) redress from the local Inspector 

General. 

3. Transfer the programmers back to General Stoney. This 

has the shortcomings of 2. above with no advantage whatsoever. 

General Stoney and his headquarters staff would consider this 

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action to be a breach of faith, and when negotiating for an eventual 

return of these personnel assets, we would experience a delay of 

at l east a year in re -establishing the pipeline flow. 

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4. Set up a training program for the programmers. Having exhausted UNIVAC's good will, we should now go on a pay-as-you-train 

basis. Major Jones would work out a course with UNIVAC, using 

actual 494 equipment. The cost for about two months of training 

would be $54, 000 of NRO funds. This alternative avoids the disadvantages of 1., 2., and 3., retains the personnel within our organization, honors the skills of the airmen, assures their pro pay, and 

holds us as close as possible to our completion date for the switching 

center. If, during the two-month period, the waivers for our 494 

should be signed, UNIVAC would immediately (as is customary) sponsor our training within its production contract. 

I 1 points out that this alternative has some serious 

disadvantages. The $54, 000, of course, presents no problem; however, we do not have a black contract with UNIVAC which could be 

amended to provide this service. Any attempt to let a white contract 

will run into delays, since we will be required to justify our procurement action to supervisory boards and panels which control data processing and personnel training expenditures. Third, this alternative 

"would set a bad precedent for government personnel support from 

our program, which we have carefully avoided. II Fourth, "even with 

a new black contract, the DCAA auditors might pick this up as a 

circumvention of rules and regulations. II Fifth, he sees this action 

as a temporary expedient which, in sixty days, would put us right 

back where we are now. It is his strong recommendation that we 

solve the entire problem (obtain the waivers) rather than trying for 

ad hoc, piecemeal "fixes. II 

Recommendation: 

I concur with I land, as a first choice, recommend 

that the waivers be obtained. If this action is not feasible, as a second 

choice I would request that we ask Dr. Flax to concur in your releasing 

the signed correspondence at Tab A. 

PA~THMAN Colonel, USAF 

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y" NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE 

WASHINGTON, D.C. 

THE NRO STAFF 

HANDLE V1A 

BYEMAN 

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MEMORANDUM FOR GENERAL MARTIN 

SUBJECT: NRO Programmer Training at UNIVAC 

This memorandum is a follow-up to our recent telephone conversation concerning the need for an NRO programmer training 

activity at UNIVAC. 

Please enter into a contract with UNIVAC for the support as 

outlined in the attached specification. 

1 Attachment 

RUSSELL A. BERG 

Brigadier General 

Director 

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UNIVAC will provide thirty-three (33) man weeks of System Analyst 

support labor directed toward the training of USAF personnel on an 

AFOCC Program and the accomplishment of the tasks outlined below: 

Taskl - Executive Ilo Handler for 8C magnetic tapes. 

Program Specifications: The handler shall operate as an integral part 

of the CORTEX Executive system utilizing the common functions provided by CORTEX. It shall process all requests from worker programs 

on a priority basis extending to the worker programs all facilities 

available in the hardware. In addition, it shall assign servos upon request, alert operations when servos are released and require blank 

tapes mounted, and relieve the worker program of concern for specific 

servo numbers. The handler will attempt to recover from errors whenever possible and alert operations and the worker program when this is 

not possible. 

Task ~ - Executive Day Clock and Real Time Clock Handlers. 

Program Specifications: The handler shall operate as an integral part 

of the CORTEX Executive System utilizing the common functions provided by COR TEX. The program is designed to keep overhead at a 

minimum by setting the clock to interrupt only when a worker program 

request expires. The worker programs will have the facility to make 

requests, update requests, and delete requests. The time frame can 

be expressed in 100 m. S., second, or minute units. Parameters can 

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be passed through registers. Any errors in the request will be 

detected by the Time r Program. The Day Clock Handler will 

provide the system with time of day, and schedule requests that 

are done at a specific time of day. 

Task ~ - Communications Interrupt Answering and Analysis 

Program Specifications: The Handler shall control all communications circuits into and out of the processor. It shall operate as an 

integral part of the CORTEX Executive system utilizing the common 

functions provided by COR TEX. It has the responsibility to send 

functions, detect activity on the line, maintain channel activity, 

identify data source, detect illegal activity, differentiate between high 

speed and low, and alert the proper program on both input and output. 

It is designed to handle the unique requirements for the remote sites 

hardware in this system. 

The charges for programs include system's analyst services @ $15.00 

per hour or $600. 00 per week and UNIVAC 494 time @ $450. 00 per 

hour. 

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Task 1 

P r ogrammer requirements: 

Design 

Code 

Debug and incorporat e into syst ems t ape 

Document 

Computer requirements: 

Thirty (30) hours 494 time 

Task 2 

Programmer requirements: 

Design 

Code 

TOTAL 

Debug and incorpor ate int o systems t ape 

_Document 

TOTAL 

Computer requirements: 

Twenty-Five (25) hours 494 time 

3 man weeks 

1 man week 

4 man weeks 

1 man week 

9 man weeks 

4 man weeks 

2 man weeks 

4 man weeks 

1 man week 

11 man weeks 

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$1, 800. 00 

600.00 

2,400.00 

600.00 

$5, 400. 00 

$13. 500. 00 

$2, 400. 00 

1.200.00 

2. 400. 00 

600.00 

$6, 600. 00 

$11.250. 00 
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Task 3 

Programmer requirements: 

Design 

Code 

Debug (partial until specific remote 

hardware is available in quantity) 

Document 

TOTAL 

Computer Requirements: 

Twenty (20) hours 494 time 

Total Tasks 1. 2. and 3: 

Systems Analyst 

494 Computer Time 

5 man weeks 

3 man weeks 

3 man weeks 

2 man weeks 

13 man weeks 

33 man weeks 

75 hours 

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$3. 000. 00 

1.800.00 

1. 800. 00 

1. 200. 00 

$7.800.00 

$9. 000. 00 

$19, 800. 00 

33. 750. 00 

$53, 550. 00