('S& NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE

WASHINGTON. I) C

THE NRO STAFF February 13, 1974

MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD

SUBJECT: Senate Armed Services Committee Testimony

on the NRO

On Friday, February 8, I was contacted by Colonel Kutyna

regarding Senator Symington's line of questioning on the NRO

to Dr. McLucas during the Senate Armed Services Committee

Hearing on February 7 (copy is attached). Colonel Kutyna

related that Dr. McLucas had asked Colonel Usher to work

toward cleaning up the record. Colonel Usher had, in turn,

given the problem to General Boswell, SAFLL. Colonel Kutyna

suggested that I speak with Colonel Usher on the matter. I

offered him our assistance and he suggested that we get together with General Boswell.

Later in the morning, I was called down to see General

Boswell. He had also called Colonel Armstrong and Lt Colonels

Gleske and Dahmen of SAFLL to be present. General Boswell had

discussed the security problem with Mr. Braswell, head of the

Committee's staff. It was agreed that Mr. Ticer, Chief Clerk

of the Committee should be apprised of the situation. General

Boswell was concerned with the mechanics of cleaning up the

testimony within the Pentagon security review process. I

explained that the entire segment should be cut out of the

testimony and that uncut documents must be classified TOP SECRETSensitive. In addition, the normal Air Force and OSD Security

Review mechanism should not be employed in this case. He called

Mr. SD Security Review, who, it turned out, did not

hav arances. Mr. Hinkle said that he would take the

mat Mr. Friedheim. General Boswell then asked

Lt Colonel Gleske and me to work with Mr. Ticer after the

documents were ready at the printers.

waxing°

FROM :a ft

OCAL RAI. MC 1 L OF

*SEM VIVS CATS 44114EGREFC GORY tit DECLASSIFY ON NAP ot T

CONS ROI. NO Internal

Car yOF CCH'Il S

PAW _AOC PACIES
--HIP-SECRETOn Tuesday, February 12, Lt Colonel Gleske called me to

say that the transcripts were ready. Colonel Armstrong picked

up seven copies for the Air Force. Six 'additional copies were

sent to Mr. Ticer on the Armed Services Committee Staff.

Arrangements were made for Colonel Gleske and me to meet with

Mr. Ticer later in the day. We then cut out the NRO related

portion from six of the seven Air Force copies. The remaining

one copy was transferred to me. The six copies would be used

in the normal Air Staff review. All purged sections were retained

by us.

In the afternoon we met with Mr. Braswell and Mr. Ticer.

It was agreed that of the six copies in the possession of the

Committee, two would remain uncut at the TOP SECRET-Sensitive

classification. Two more were cut and reduced to TOP SECRET

and retained by the Committee. The other two were transferred

to the Air Force. One of these will be edited and cut to make

the document unclassified for the Congressional Record. The

final copy will be left intact and all the editions and insertions for the record, including the NRO portion, will be made.

This copy will be retained in the Committee files as permanent

record at the TOP SECRET-Sensitive level. All other copies will

be destroyed after this process takes place.

During our session Mr. Braswell indicated that he thought

that this probleil would be able to be worked out satisfactorily

but that things were getting "looser" and he did not know how

long we could protect this kind of information.

Colonel Gleske and I agreed that the NRO portion would be

pulled out for the normal edition process and then inserted

immediately prior to transmittal to the Committee.

On February 13, General Boswell told me that Mr. Friedheim

wished to review the document personally based upon what Mr. Hinkle

had told him. I indicated that our preference is that the NRO

portion be handled separately with Mr. FriedheLm. General Boswell

also indicated that he would have to talk to Senator Symington

about this matter. I am not clear what this would accomplish

since the Committee Staff appeared satisfied with the arrangement

at this time.

CO":114th1el Internal

caws, UI coPit

• • •.• pm.i _1_01

•• . •
HAROLD S. COYLE, JR.

Lt Colonel

-f0P-SECRETUnless overruled or overtaken, we plan to stress the

separate handling of the NRO testimony in the Pentagon, and

will continue opposition to the entering of the testimony

into the normal review process.

I have requested NRO Security and CIA Special Security to

administer inadvertent disclosure oaths to the several people

who had no clearances but were in attendance at the hearing.

C:()% ICJ: Nu Intfdrnal

COPY O COPI F f;

PAM :SIM 3 _ 4AtiLS
n MII• • Mr SD MO It IL Mb •

Secretary BeLucas. Would you like me to answer that now?

Senator Symington. Can you do it? •

3 Secretary NbLucas. I am afraid I do not have it in my

4 mind, sir.

5 Senator Symington. Well; would you file it for the record

Secretary Hawes. Yes.

7 Senator Symington. Thank you.

•

8 What is the estimated total cost -- no. Is this system

9 part of the National : Reconnaissance:Office referred to recently

10 in the press?

11 Secretary NCLucas. No, sir. By the way, in answering the

12 question, when we do it for the record, it is fairly easy to

13 say, to give you an estimate of the cost of the satellites and

14 j the control of those satellites that make up the Global

15 j Positioning System. The large cost is in the individual aircraf

16 j and other systems we want to use that system. So, if I give

1111111111111 17 you a figure o for the satellite, there might be

18 orth.

19 Senator Symington. Well, you give us those figures you

20 i think are pertinent.

21 Secretary MOLucas. Right.

22 i Senator Symington. -There was an-article.iwthe-press

23 an December 9th, and this -question is based_on.that..article.

24 It states.., "gor the . past several Tears the supervision of--the . .

25. National.Reconnaissance. Office . has . 'nominally been in. the hands 2•
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Of .:.the -Undersecretary, 0...the.:Atriorce."

Is that..._ths.,case, and ...if;_so,...could. you give us a little

more data. as . .to what the •NRO : is and" does?::

SocretaryMpLucas The-NRO.has been under-:the•uris

diction . 0.the Undersecretarrof . theltir : Force continuously

since 196(4 with the l exception:.of . .one period lOhen.it was under

the Assistant Necrotary,.Dr...Flax,= between the 'years. 0.'55

ancL'69.

The office is a.management.officec.it is _a very .small

. number of people.. .It manageiva..programotaboullillillir

year to develop and operate-a system of reconnaissance satellites. .These satellites are . developed.by either the Air Force,

CIA or the.Navy, mainly by.the Air Force.. The program is

operated as a covert program in the. sense that none of this

has appeared as an identifiable line item. All of the informati

with respect to this program has been made available to the

Select Committees that normally supervise the CIA program.

Senator Symington. When you sarthe • Select Committees,

do you mean the CIA Subcommittee of this Committee?

Secretary McLucas. Yes, sir.

Senator Symington. Are you sure of that?

Secretary McLucas. Yea.

Senator Symington. In 1970, the National Reconnaissance

Program accounted for abou f the total intelligene budget.
•

Is• tb as44.1 ..t1111;4411..44. .fif94 .vea;:.3475?

Secretary :McLucas e. . yes.

Senator Symington.. Do you know. the., amount ia.shat.the

question is.

Secretary 14cLucas.;. •: For NRO?

Senator. Symington..-.

Would you file it for the record?..

Secretary McLucas. Yes. It.isAust slightly over a

essentially agnirier

Senator Symington., ..Thank you.

How many personnel are_assigned . to the NRO?

Secretary McLucas. I would have to submit the details for

the record.

Senator Symington. Would you do that?

Thank you.

General Brown, I have a few questions here for you and a

little time left.

On page 5 you make reference to the fact that the ICBM

force today consists of 1000 MINUTE NAN and 54 TITAN missiles.

Is it still the plan to phase out the 54 TITAN missiles in the

near future?

•

General Brown. It is, yes, sir.

Senator Symington. On page 10 you stated, "we plan to

step up our research and development efforts in this area as

a hedge against failure to reach essential equivalents of our

•

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