TOP SEeRET BYEMAN CONtACt.. SYSTEM 

. .JSf' NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE 

WASHINGTON, D.C. 

THE NRO STAFf 

MEMORANDUM FOR DR. McLUCAS 

SUBJECT: SIGINT Satellite Support during 

Operations 

1 December 1972 

hong Mining 

On the night that President Nixor. announced the mining 

of H9phong there was a flurry of messages and phone calls in 

the middle of the night which resulted in a redirection of 

all our ELINT satellites to try and ascertain any I I 

reaction to our mining of North Vietnam. 

As of 21 November ~e returned all our systems to normal 

tasking. Although this latest change was in fact coordinated 

through SORS the basis for the request was the attached Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet message. The message is worth 

reading as it provides an actual crisis response time through 

the SORS mechanism for changing tasking I I 

from user request to satellite turn on) and secondly it 

illustrates that at least one of our "customersft appreciates 

our collection efforts. 

I have prepared some view graphs which are attached and 

a talking paper (Tab B) for. your' use at a Friday morning 

breakfast. 

Attachments 

Tab A - message 

Tab B - Talking paper & V-Gs 

David D. Bradburn 

Brigadier General, USAF 

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1 December 1912 

Talking Pape~ 

ChGrt 1 - I would like to discuss briefly the activities of 

SIGINT sateliltes at the time 0 the hesldentta anti~\llCement of the mining of • The messa.,e 

here is not so Blcb what the satellites achieved 

as it is tbe w4y the satellites appeared 'to be 

taking their place ass regular part of 'Our tntelllgence collection process. 

Char'i: 2 ... Here 1s the sequence of events sbmdng how our 

satellites were brought on l:Lne. Within 24 hOUrs :II 

special tasking lnstwctlons had~b.em~ml.~mt~ 

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Chat't 4 ... Here a:re the same areas of inf:erest with the field 

of view of poppy shown in o·~me~---'1"I:rlJl----'!J!nHIl!.'raJI:UL--"-.A_ 

rovided the stations at 

Again, notice the 

activity during the six weeks before 9 May, 151 locations.. Six weeks after 9 May ~ 455 locations .. 

Cl;1artS -Here is another picture of the poppy reporting, 

showing the increase in activity after the announce-

$eDt on 9 Hay and the reduction in that activity by 

20 June .. 

... A word on results: not: ,eh tn the Cf.'HD1T area 

from 1 No significant activity 

received by I I But She low altitude SIGIRT 

vehi:cles dtdaCD.1eve good reporting times on the 

average as shown .. 

tRl ···,~· ... , ;, 'E'VQ . . . 

S'tRAWHAN 

POpn 

~----~ 

Cha:rt 7 ... Here is a message from CINCPACFLT on 21 Hov 72. 

Again II . illY m.$s~,ets . tbat.e . are lombg to use 

our SIGm8~n~eIlltes1tootlnelY ~ I think tlds 1s 

a good th~. 

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Addend~ to Tal~in8 PaRe~ 

Chart A - It m going to talk this morning about the use of 

SICmT satellites in support of military operations .. 

This is a capability which has been evolving rapidly 

during the past few years.. It was first used by 

STRAWMAN in 1968 in support of our operations fn 

North Vietnam as shown on this chart" The satellite 

first passed aver the target area as shown here 

reading in by listening for radar signals.. A short 

time later, perhpps 45 .inutes or a little over two 

hours later depending on whethee it was .".~ the 

satellltei s ~ct path, it passed over ~~_ ~~~cking 

station. at Vandenberg and the information was read 

cut by con:mand.. The information was sent itm'tediately 

by minawave to the Sittelllte Tracking Center in 

"' Sunrryvale and immediately relayed to our special 

computer facility called I lin the same 50X1 

area.. After some comput.er processing the messages 

descrihing North Vietnamese radar locations and 

operating characteristics were sent to SAC and (via 

NSA) to 7th Air Force at Ton Son N'hut. The t,Une 

from observation of North Vietnam to arrival of the 

finished info~tion at Ton Son Nhut varied from 

three to eight hours. This is highly competitive 

with the time it takes to get the same kind of 

information from airplanes flyi:ng in the theater 

of operations. 

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Chart: B ... More ;recently we have had many short specific 

exercffses to demonstrate timeliness of satellite 

SIGIN'! reporting. On this chart !I TANGIBLE and 

ROPEVAL were special exe:reises in which our First 

Fleet, on maneuvers ,was the target. Other short 

exercises were directed against actual intelligence 

t:all4~~t ... 

Chart C - Here are th~ collection projects currently on the 

hooks. Project: FLAVOR, the 0 Idest II has produced 

some of the key lnfot'mat :lou about Soviet air-tosurfa:ete;.missl1e radars in I I 

k. 

Chart D .. In addition to developing a quick reporting capability, 

which we have been working on, the intelligence 

cotnmUnity has 1mproved the procedures for starting 

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up a special collection effert. A soas telephone 

vote used to be needed (pre 1972). Now NRC andNSA 

can react to requests from any SOlS member, subject 

to further confirmation. 8-0 these capabilities, 

both of the satellites and of our administrative 

procedures) are improving. This morning I will 

show hbW these resources were applied during the 

mining of ·.Haiphong. 

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