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...YIN 19 1968 

MEMORANDUM FOR DR. FLAX 

SUBJECT: MOL Program Structure Title Change 

I have rewritten both the Confidential and BYEMAN classified 

rationale for moving MOL from Package 6 to Package 3 and I have 

incorporated your suggestions and correction.; except for changing 

the title of Program Structure Code 3 (Intelligence and Communicationi).-., 

This is the , official title for Package 3. 5:he program structure codes 

and'titlea:are established by OASD, Cmptroiler as part of their 

prOzramming and documentation structure. DDR&E specifies the package 

tovaich each program element 14assigned.t-' 

:To answer your question ire, margiOlia with'regard to :where 

reference to MOLand Package' 3 appear and to examine the difficulty of : . . •• 

;changing the Package 3 title;- I have had mypeople,do e'littie:background4k 

;work (Atch :Unfortunatelyi thePackage.:3'MOLrelationship appears 

.11- - 4:very- Wide variety of dodUmen*Involving programming' and budgeting. 

These include -the Defense Structure Handbook, Five Year Defense. Plan, 

the.projectflsting to CongrosSend .enumbarlof others: To change:the 

requireyOUraSpisten4e. It seems:that-Package:3 

wascory.ectly titled Intelligei/bean 'CoiCations has, 

nowbedoMeHsomewhat of .a catch p l ..of specialiXed'aCtiVities 

ButTthISAsuot necessarily,.4004ren tie1:44ik8ne. :ThecourietiOU'action 

availabletb'UsareaSfollOOS 

: ,al• Do nothing. - ntage: to l•this solution is that 

ould not draw undue aitentiOnt611WOr imPly.:anylreat concern on our . _ 

-.art as 'it is included in the )therActivit'OSsub-category under 

intelligence and CommunicatiThOlisadv,entage:is'that a liery.:Wide 

audience will be. exposed to 006.desizableaSsociation betweOn.MOL and 

Intelligenceand CommunicatienshOuld.theyonly:makecurioriexamination 

of the Program Seructure_Codef 3 COntent, ' - 

b. Take action to. reMoqe:14OL'frOIS Package 3 and haVe- At. placed 

1,ack, in Package.6:—This:has.thp:ISOvantage,- Of'removing the, intelligence 

stigma by placing MOL inthepaelt404.ohere it technically - .' and correctly 

belongs'. 'The:disadvantage is7thdoes Wbt,servethepurpoie:forwhich 

the present•change was made indirthereforetAs.probably wit.a8teeable 

to Mt. McNamara to whom the changeras attr44)uted.- 

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c. Take action to retitle Package. 3 to "Special,Activities 

"General Support," or "Activities (Other). The advantages to this 

solution are that it eliminates the MOL intelligence. association and. 

it is more descriptive of the contents of Package 3 than the present 

title. . 

• 

I recommend solution c. I have prepared a letter for Dr. Brown' 

signatur e which recommends this change. 

JAMES T. STEWART 

Major General, USAF 

Vice Director, MOL Program- ,. 

',:1401. from Package 6 to 

aCkac,c 3 (Conf) 

. from Package 6 to 

Package 3 (BYEMAN) 

1. Memo for Record, 

Jan 18, 1968 ' 

Ltr from Dr. Brown's 

signature'; 

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0 CONFIDENT Pi - 0 

MOL FROM PACKAGE 6 TO PACKAGE 3 

The DoD Program Structure Code assigned to the Manned 

Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) Program has been changed to reflect program potential and significance in the Department 

of Defense. In the early phases of the program, MOL was 

assigned to the Advanced Development portion of Program 

Structure Code 6 (Research and Development). In January 1967, 

MOL was placed in the Engineering Development portion of 

Package 6 to categorize the Phase II effort. As of July 1, 

1968, the MOL will be transferred to the Other Activities 

portion of Program Structic Code 3 (Intelligence. and Communications.) Program Stre2cure Code 3 consists of missions 

and activities directly related to the Strategic and General 

Purpose Forces on which independent decisions can be made;' 

includes resources for primarily national or centrallydirected DoD objectives. 11 =-_ckage 3 includes not only intelligence, security, and communications items, but also command and control systems, and specialized missions such as 

weather service, aerospace rescue and recovery, air traffic 

control, oceanography, and various other activities. The 

general rationale for this reclassification follows: 

CONFIDENTIAL 
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The principal objective of the MOL Program is to 

obtain resolution photography of significant targets in denied areas for technical, strategic, 

and tactical intelligence purposes. This objective will be 

reached through the development of the necessary high 

resolution optical technology and space vehicles for either 

manned or unmanned use. 

One of the attract' features of space system 

developments contrasted ch mary air, sea, and ground R&D 

efforts is the achievement of useful operational functions 

on a first flight -- barring a catastrophic flight failure. 

Some examples are the VE1.:, nuclear detonation detection 

satellites, the Initial D:, fense Communications Satellite, 

Program (IDCSP) and the various unmanned photographic and 

SIGINT reconnaissance satellites of the NRO. While this 

latter group of spacecraft/payload combinations have 

characteristically shown marked improvement with time, 

they have consistently provided important and highly useful 

intelligence collection from the very beginning. 

The manned version of the MOL system is being developed 

and will be flown first because this gives the highest 

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assurance of meeting the resolution goal at the earliest 

• reasonable date; will insure a useful reconnaissance 

product at the outset; and will contribute to the maturing 

of the unmanned system at a much earlier date than probably 

otherwise would occur. An unmanned version of the MOL is 

also being developed to insure a national capability to 

acquire very high resolution photography in denied areas 

should international objections, foreign threats, or some 

, . • now unknown man-in-space physiological limitation preclude 

extended manned operations. 

The MOL system is' being developed as an operational 

• - reconnaissance system. Most of the components are standard': 

items or modifications thereof (for example: the Gemini 'v 

Titan-III, space suits; environmental control system; fuel 

cells, etc.). Only the camera system and related systems 

which serve pointing functions constitute state of the art 

advances. The MOL will be operated from the outset in 

response to target coverage requirements of the United States 

Intelligence Board in conjunction with unmanned National 

Reconnaissance Program satellites. 

From the above, it is quite clear that the MOL 

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Program is properly located in Program Structure Code 3. 

It has been placed in the Other Activities sub-category 

rather than the Intelligence portion to avoid direct and 

open confirmation that MOL is in fact an intelligence 
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January 18, 1968 

MEMORANDUM FOR RECORD 

SUBJECT: The MOL Program Element in Package 3 

On January 17, I met separately with Mr. Tom Everett of the Office 

of the Assistant Director, Programming, DDR&E, and Mr. Alexander 

Sinclair of the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary, Management 

Systems Development, OSD Comptroller. These meetings were generated 

in response to Dr. Flax's continuing concern with the difficulties 

which might result from the inclusion of MOL in the Package 3 category 

because of the title "Intelligence and Communications." Their purpose 

was to explain the desirability and justification for changing the 

Package 3 title from "Intelligence and Communications" to something 

like "Specialized Activities," "General Support," "Activities (Other), 

or something else which would be more properly descriptive of the 

program elements which are now in this group. 

Mr. Everett was in total agreement with the need and propriety 

for the change, but admitted that although DDR&E was responsible 

for determining to what RDT&E program an element would be assigned, 

OSD Comptroller was responsible for assigning the program element 

number, category titles and just about all else having to do with 

program structuring and documentation. 

My meeting with Mr. Sinclair was a rather interesting one. At 

the outset, he pointed out that he didn't understand why the Air Force 

had moved MOL into Package 3 to begin with. I recited to him the 

actual sequence of events, as we knew it, (Atch 1), to establish that 

this was not an Air Force generated change. He then permitted me to 

read a short position paper, written by him, in which he disagreed 

with the DDR&E directed transfer of our program to Package 3. The 

basis of his objection was that inclusion of MOL in Operational Systems 

Development violated the basic criteria established for this class of 

program elements. This criteria requires that the program be related 

to efforts involving RDT&E and Production/Procurement. His position 

was that the remedial action required was not to change the title of 

Package 3, but to remove MOL from the Operational Systems Development 

category. We discussed the applicability of the title to programs other 

than MOL, such as T-III, Aerial Targets, Aerospace Rescue/Recovery, etc. 

Mr. Sinclair observed that many of these program elements were new 

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additions to the Package 3 group and although he agreed that perhaps 

some other general title would be more accurate, each action had the 

very specific knowledge and approval of Mr. McNamara. 

I asked whether in view of the fact that there were now a substantial number of Package 3 elements for which the title "Intelligence 

and Communications" was a misnomer, he thought that at some near future 

date he might propose a title change. His response was that before he 

would consider changing the title he would argue that the elements which 

did not meet the DODI 7045 series criteria be removed from the group. 

He indicated that any title change at this time would have to come from 

"topside." 

My conclusion is that there is no quick and easy way to officially 

remove MOL from the danger of the "Intelligence and Communications" 

label. We can only rationalize that there are other programs included 

which are obviously not intelligence or communications, and that the . 

title is an unfortunate catch-all for a pot pourri of program elements. 

For the long view, however, it seems almost mandatory, but 

certainly desirable that we initiate action for an official change 

to the record. The MOL program element under the "Intelligence and 

Communications" label will appear in many, many documents with rather 

wide circulation, i.e., the Defense Structure Handbook, the Table 32 

program/budget listings, the Five Year Defense Plan, the Project 

Listing to Congress, in fact in almost every detailed or definitive 

programming/budgeting document. 

I recommend that this change action be initiated by a memorandum. 

from Dr. Brown to Mr. McNamara. A suggested memorandum accompanies 

this report. 

BERTRAM KEW 

Lt Colonel, USAF 

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IV:MORAN= FOR RECORD 

SUBJECT: Program Element Eum'ocr Change 

Oa 3 January, I spoke sir. Knutson, Assistant Director • 

(Programming), DD1&E, to try to determine the basis for transferring 

MOL into the Operational Systemz Development category. According to 

him, the story goes as follows. 

• 

During the week preceding Christmas, there were a series of 

discussions between, MX. MeNazsra, Dr. Foster, Mr. Anthony and 

Dr. Brown. After one of these sessions, Dr. Foster came out of . 

the meeting with a hand written note, shish was given to Mr. Knutson, 

and which had words to the effect "transfer MOL into Program 3." 

Mr. Xnutson then asked the 00 Comptroller to assign a mission 

element number for MOL, and the 3.51.21F came into being, 

It is Colonel Ford's view that the perturbations which would 

be required to try to got the P.B. number changed might be interpreted 

as an overreaction, and might be suspect to persons not having access 

to the program. This, together with the fact that the decision was ' 

apparently made at.a very high level, would suggest that accapting 

the change without comment might be the lesser security risk. L 

BERTRNA KEMP 

Lt Colonel, usAr. 

Program and Policies Div.:: 

SAFSL . 

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SAFSL Chron File 

SMSLP - Official File • 

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WAS:, NGTON 20330 

C.+FFICE OF THE SECRETARY 

MEMORANDUM FOR SECRETARY OF DEFENSE 

SUBJECT: MOL Program Structure Title Change 

You will recall that during our December meetings 

MOL was one of the programs transferred from Package 6 

to Package 3 of RDT&E. 

Both I and Dr. Flax are somewhat concerned with 

respect to the inference which probably will be drawn 

from the assignment of MOL to Package 3 ("Intelligence 

and Communications"). Although many of the program 

elements now listed under various sub-categories of 

Package 3 have no direct relationship to the cited 

intelligence and communications activities and systems 

(e.g., national military command system, weather service, 

aerial targets, T-III vehicle, air traffic control, 

aerospace rescue/recovery, etc.), more than a cursory 

knowledge of the contents is required to detect this 

somewhat obscure distinction. 

Unfortunately, the program structure codes are used 

in a variety of budget and programming documentation 

which receive widespread distribution within the Departmant of Defense, in Congress, and to other agencies. I cN 

feel it is an undesirable situation for MOL to appear in co 

these documents under an overall intelligence and commu- T 

nications label. It may be asserted in various quarters, >tL 1 

although perhaps not completely logically, that this 

constitutes official confirmation of the intelligence 

character of the MOL Program which, 'of course, violates 

our basic security policy toward satellite reconnaissance 

programs. This then wo-Ild place us in the defensive 

position of trying to es)lain :he subtleties of the 

various sub-categories .thin ?ackage 3. Although the 

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real-world political and security risk may be small, I 

feel it is in our best interest to avoid this potentially 

sensitive situation if possible. 

An examination of the total contents of Package 3 

confirms that only a portion of the program elements in 

the package are in fact intelligence and communications 

items. Package 3 has evolved into a collection of a 

number of dissimilar items and, in effect, has become a 

catch-all for many activities which do not logically fit 

in other areas. It may therefore be reasonable to 

retitle Package 3 to one which more accurately describes 

its contents. I recommend that the title be changed to 

"General Support" or "Special Activities" and that this 

be done as quickly as possible. Prompt action will permit 

incorporation of the new title in appropriate DoD and 

AF FY 69 budget and programming documents. 

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