Statement for the Record 

Ms. Betty Sapp 

Principal Deputy Director, National Reconnaissance Office 

Before the House Armed Services Committee 

Subcommittee on Strategic Forces 

21 April 2010 

NOT FOR PUBLICATION UNTIL RELEASED BY THE 

HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE 

STRATEGIC FORCES SUBCOMMITTEE 

UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
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INTRODUCTION 

Chairman Langevin, Ranking Member Turner, and distinguished 

Members of the Committee, I am pleased to appear before you 

today to discuss the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) fiscal 

year (FY) 2011 program and national security space activities. 

It is an honor for me to appear alongside our mission partners 

from the Department of Defense (DoD), the Honorable Robert 

Butler, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber and 

Space Policy; the Honorable Gary Payton, Deputy Under Secretary 

of the Air Force for Space Programs; and General Robert Kehler, 

Commander, Air Force Space Command. The NRO’s close relationship 

and continuing partnership with our mission partners are vital 

to maintaining our Nation’s superiority in space. 

The unclassified nature of today’s hearing precludes me 

from discussing many details of NRO programs, as well as sharing 

some of our greatest successes. However, I welcome the 

opportunity to meet in another setting to fully discuss with you 

the breadth and depth of NRO capabilities, partnerships, and 

value of the NRO contributions to our national security. 

State of the NRO. On behalf of General Bruce Carlson 

(USAF, Ret.), the Director, NRO (DNRO), I would like to begin 

with a few words about the state of the NRO today. First and 

foremost, the unique composition of our workforce is one of our 
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greatest strengths. As you know, we draw our personnel from 

across the DoD and Intelligence Community (IC), allowing us 

unique access to the “best and brightest” from across the space 

acquisition community and to all the acquisition “lessons 

learned.” The talented people of the NRO allow our significant 

and continued mission success, and enable our ability to provide 

the very best information to the warfighter. 

From launching the most technically-capable systems, to 

continued operations of legacy satellites, to business 

practices, the NRO remains the premier space reconnaissance 

organization in the world. Like any organization that operates 

in the unforgiving binary environment of total success versus 

failure with little middle ground, the NRO continuously strives 

to improve and learn from both our successes and our setbacks. 

We have had significant successes in the last year. We plan to 

extend that record of success through the next twelve months, 

and through multiple launches. In this regard, the NRO is 

wholly-focused on continuing our high performance by delivering 

these upcoming satellites on time and on budget. General 

Carlson and I are both confident that by continuing to leverage 

past successes and community workforce strengths, the NRO will 

continue to provide the Nation with the space reconnaissance 

capabilities it requires. 
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DNRO Priorities. Since taking the helm at the NRO last 

summer, General Carlson has communicated his priorities for the 

NRO in a very straight-forward manner. It is a priority of the 

NRO to execute programs on time and on budget. It is a priority 

of the NRO to improve our research and technology (R&T) 

investment. And it is a priority of the NRO to continue to 

invest in the foundation of our organization---to recruit, 

train, and retain the best people. 

And as many of you already know, General Carlson is focused 

on completing the work required to revise the outdated NRO 

Charter. Just last month, the Director of National Intelligence 

(DNI) and the Secretary of Defense endorsed the Organizing 

Principles for the National Reconnaissance Office and 

recommended this document serve as the foundation for revising 

the 1965 NRO Charter. This is a significant step forward in the 

revision process. 

NRO CONTRIBUTIONS: CRITICAL TO THE FIGHT 

I would like to briefly discuss a critical mission for the 

NRO---support to the warfighter. Almost nine years after the 

attacks of September 11th, NRO systems and people continue to 

make significant contributions each and every day to ongoing 

operations around the globe. The NRO currently has over 40 

personnel deployed in harm's way in direct support of the 
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warfighter, and we continue to rapidly adapt to the needs and 

changing pace of our deployed forces. 

For example, in concert with our mission partners, the NRO 

and its systems recently provided significant support to the 

101st Airborne Aviation Brigade during the initial weeks of its 

redeployment to Afghanistan. Only last month, a helicopter from 

the Screaming Eagles went down in a remote location near a 

Forward Operating Base (FOB) in Zabul Province. With no 

available organic ISR assets due to the FOB’s remote location, 

weather, and other tasking priorities, the Brigade’s 

intelligence staff requested immediate imagery assistance from a 

combined NRO/National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) cell. 

We were able to rapidly provide multiple images of the area on a 

very low bandwidth connection, which enabled the Brigade to 

quickly assess the situation and secure a new perimeter around 

the crash site. Key imagery intelligence was provided to the 

operations and rescue teams within minutes, with the end result 

being the safe rescue of 14 wounded soldiers and the crash site 

secured and protected. One of the intelligence officers from 

the Brigade relayed to our people the following after this 

mission: “I wanted to pass on my sincere thanks for your 

support that night. An aircraft down is one of the worst things 

we can experience as a unit and your timely imagery support was 

pivotal to our rescue teams.” 
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 The NRO also continues to focus on expanding access to NRO 

products and services, improving the content of the NRO 

informational products, and reducing the amount of time it takes 

to get relevant data to the warfighter. Led by the NRO’s 

Mission Support Directorate, the NRO is concentrating on 

developing new capabilities for warfighters, operators, and 

intelligence analysts. We are focused on support to CounterImprovised Explosive Device (C-IED) efforts, Counter-Unmanned 

Aerial System (C-UAS) efforts, and communications infrastructure 

and technology solutions designed to support “find, fix, and 

finish” operations. A prime example of this is an NRO project 

known as “RED DOT”, which went operational in Iraq last month 

after it was rapidly developed, tested, and fielded in just over 

a year. RED DOT leverages reduced processing timelines that the 

NRO has been aggressively pursuing, and more efficiently moves 

time-sensitive intelligence data to the warfighter, by semiautomatically passing indications and warnings data from 

national systems down to tactical vehicles at the unclassified 

level. This results in increased force protection and serves as 

a pathfinder for delivering other national systems data down to 

the soldier in harm’s way. 

 In addition to rapidly developing and deploying 

capabilities in support of the warfighter, the NRO is also 

proactively involved with pre-deployment training and education 
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initiatives throughout DoD and the IC. NRO personnel instruct 

our system capabilities as part of the core curriculum at the 

Army’s Intelligence Center of Excellence at Fort Huachuca, 

Arizona; and our Mobile Training Teams have provided both the 

Army’s I Corps and III Corps with relevant training on national 

intelligence capabilities available to the unit in theater. And 

of particular note, our School of Warfighter Support, one of the 

schools within the NRO University structure, recently was 

awarded the DNI 2009 Excellence in Intelligence Community 

Education and Training Award. 

SPACE INDUSTRIAL BASE 

Maintaining a healthy space industrial base is a matter of 

critical importance to our national security. In the history of 

the space age we have rarely been so reliant on so few space 

industry suppliers. Many suppliers are struggling to remain 

competitive as demand for highly specialized space components 

dwindles due to a niche government customer-base. We must all 

do our part to improve this situation for the long-term. The 

NRO is dedicated to improving the health of the industrial base 

through well-defined requirements that are coupled with good 

government oversight and stable budgets and production line 

rates. 
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Additionally, as you know, the landscape of the launch 

capability changed significantly in December 2006 when the 

United Launch Alliance (ULA) was established. The NRO works 

with the Air Force to ensure EELV availability and 

sustainability. 

CONCLUSION 

I would like to conclude my remarks today by highlighting 

an example of NRO’s excellence and teamwork. In November 2009, 

the NRO received an Unqualified Opinion on the fiscal year 2009 

Financial Statement. This was the first clean audit for a 

defense intelligence agency since 2003. This positive outcome 

was the result of hard work across the NRO workforce and the 

culmination of a diligently planned and executed two-year effort 

to achieve a clean opinion. NRO’s internal processes for proper 

funds management and accurate financial reports have now been 

validated, and we are effectively positioned to sustain this 

Unqualified Opinion into the future. 

The NRO vision is “vigilance from above” for our Nation. 

We remain focused on providing innovative overhead intelligence 

systems for national security, and the people of the NRO embody 

our core values of integrity and accountability, teamwork built 

on respect and diversity, and mission excellence. Driven by our 

extraordinary people, the NRO will continue on the path of 
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delivering acquisition and operations excellence, as well as the 

unparalleled innovation that is the hallmark of our history and 

foundation of our future. 

Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, thank you for 

the opportunity to appear before you today. On behalf of 

General Carlson, I thank you for your continued support of the 

NRO, and I stand ready to answer your questions.