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A-5f NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE 

WASHINGTON, D.C. 

THE NRO STAFF I September 1971 

MEMORANDUM FOR DR. MCLUCAS 

SUBJECT: Evaluation of Project TANGIBLE and Plans for Project 

ROPEVAL 

Evaluation of Proiect TANGIBLE 

Our initial NRO evaluation of Proj TANGIBLE showed that 

satellite ~LINT intercepts could be repol:'ted to the Navy Fleet 

Ocean Surveillance Information Facility (FOSIF) with an average 

time from observation to report of two hours and five minutes. 

After compiling this statistical data on the performance of 

the NRO satellites, we planned to make, in collaboration with 

First Fleet and other Navy staff elements, an operational evaluation of TANGIBLE. The satellite reports were to be compared with 

the actual locations of ships in the maneuver as compiled by the 

Navy. This operational evaluation has encountered difficulties. 

There is simply not enough fine structured data for rigorous 

correlation of the satellite reports with the ship locations. 

Neither is there sufficient data to permit comparisons of the 

timeliness and accuracy of the satellite inputs versus other 

sensors which participated in the exercises. For these reasons 

and after considerable effort by the NRO Staff, I believe we 

should discontinue our efforts at further evaluation of the 

TANGIBLE data. 

Cdr Caswell's report on the evaluation work so far is at 

Tab A. Working with plots of the ship locations (about 20 out 

of 40 participating ships) provided by the First Fleet, we have 

l.nade the fo llowing find lngs : 

a. Of 158 reports of Navy emitters made by the satellites 122 reports were correlated with ship locations. 

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b. Individual ships were not successfully tracked 

from day to day. This was probably caused by the relatively 

low frequency of observations (about two per day over the 10-

day period of the maneuver). 

c. There were more ships in the area than were reported 

by the satellites; however, the Navy did not maintain detailed 

ship's logs of radar operating time, so there is no way to be 

sure whether we sawall the radars that were on the air. 

d. Similarly we cannot account for emitters reported 

by the satellites but uncorrelated with the ship locations 

furnished by the Navy. These "extra" reports may be real ships 

in the maneuver which were not plotted by the Navy. 

Plans for Operation ROPEVAL 

The next First Fleet exercise, Operation ROPEVAL, begins 

the second week of September and lasts for two weeks. The 

maneuver area extends from Midway across the Pacific to the 

West Coast. Of interest to us, the Fleet Staff will be ashore 

in the FOSIF at Treasure Island. We have direct communications 

from I Ito the FOSIF. Our expectations for this 

exercise are somewhat different from, and shaped by, our exoerience in TANGIBLE, a,::) follows: 50X1 

a. TRIPOS/SOUSF.A will cover the I ~ortion 

of the maneuver area with wide-swath rapid reporting by 1 

I I No TRIPOS/SOUSkc-t.~-'A--

~t:'=ep~o=r~t~s~w=~~I~I~b~e~a=v~a=~~I~a~b~I~e~t~a~r=t~n~e~r~w~e~s~t~,------'b'""ecause we have no I"-----~-

~ __ ~~-I capability from Hawaii or Guam for TRIPOS/SOUSEA. 

We will not be demonstrating the capabilities of URSALA, scheduled for launch next Spring, will have the wide swath with rapid 

reporting for the entire area. 

b. STRAWMAN IV will participate, but its 200 mile wide 

swath will not give very comprehensive coverage of the large 

maneuver area. We can double the number of STRAWMAN access~s 

by calling up STRAWMAN III from caretaker statllS for the duration of Operation ROPEVAL at a budgetary increase of $27,000 

per month. Assuming we would need the equivalent of one month's 

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operation to support this two-week exercise, that would be a 

small price to pay to show we are interested and doing our best 

in a good cause. 

c. The POppy site i~ I will have some 

coverage of the northern part·~o~f~t~h~e~m~a~n~e~u~v~er area and will 

be of use during the operation. In TANGIBLE, POPPY could not 

see the maneuver area at all. 

d. Our initial post-mission evaluations will, like 

TANGIBLE, emphasize timeliness of reporting as a prime measure 

of our performance. Our main attention must be on POppy, which 

will be ill the inventory for some time rather than on TRIPOS/ 

SOUSEA and STRAWMAN, which will not. 

e. The First Fleet is planning to maintain a much better 

data base on ship locations and radar operations. At this stage, 

however, I am not confident that the post-mission operational 

evaluation of the satellite data will be very conclusive. We 

will do our best. 

I would like your concurrence on these two recommendations: 

First, that we consider the evaluation of TANGIBLE to be 

complete on the basis of Cdr Caswell's memorandum. 

Second, that we call up STRAWMAN III temporarily to 

participate in ROPEVAL. The attached message fl.'om you to Gen 

Allen implements this decision. 

Concur 

Nonconcur __________ ---

See me 

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