Statement for the Record 

Mr. Scott Large 

Director, National Reconnaissance Office 

Before the House Armed Services Committee 

Subcommittee on Strategic Forces Joint Hearing: 

Fiscal Defense Authorization Act Budget Request and 

Status for Space Activities 

5 March 2008 
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Introduction 

Good afternoon, Madame Chairman and Distinguished Members. 

Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the National 

Reconnaissance Office (NRO) plans and accomplishments. It gives 

me great pleasure to join two of our mission partners, the 

Honorable Gary Payton, Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force 

and General Robert Kehler, Commander, Air Force Space Command. 

The NRO’s close relationship with our mission partners is 

central to our Nation’s commanding lead in space. We are all 

fully aware other countries are striving to challenge our space 

advantage or render our systems vulnerable. It is this 

knowledge that provides the sense of urgency, fueling our 

initiative as a team, to seek ways to smartly develop and 

protect our space systems. To do this, the NRO must foster 

these close and continuing partnerships, not just with my 

colleagues here today, but with virtually every U.S. Government 

entity with significant investment, or reliance on space 

capabilities. Unfortunately, the unclassified nature of today’s 

hearing precludes me from talking about some of our greatest 

successes; however, I welcome the opportunity to meet in another 

setting to help you fully understand the breadth and depth of 

our capabilities, partnerships, and the value of space-based 

architectures. 

Today I will describe a few recent developments and steps 

we are taking as an integrated space community to protect 
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today’s systems. Most importantly, I will discuss the 

tremendous military and civil space community alliance and the 

expertise and extensive capabilities they provide warfighters. 

Today, we provide unprecedented levels of support never imagined 

when the NRO was created in 1962. When the NRO was formed, our 

primary role was strategic intelligence. The latency inherent 

to those systems did not provide the tactical intelligence our 

warfighters need today. This emphasized the need to develop a 

means to rapidly deliver information and the requisite training 

and doctrine for their use. Today, in addition to the 

traditional roles of these systems, NRO systems are used 

extensively to support the warfighter. In many ways, 

integration into our mission partner plans and strategies is 

nearly seamless. The idea that our Nation might have to go to 

war without our national systems is an alarming prospect and one 

reason why we are so committed to our close partnerships. 

SUPPORT TO WARFIGHTER 

The first topic I want to touch upon is support to the 

warfighter, a critical mission for the NRO. This past year, NRO 

systems provided critical mission support to warfighters across 

the globe. With an expanding arsenal of sensing capabilities, 

multi-intelligence fusion methods, and a commitment to 

collaboration across communities, NRO systems and secure 
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networks have ensured the timely delivery of accurate, 

insightful, life-saving intelligence to our nation's defenders. 

Tremendous innovations resulted from the integration of the 

NRO with other elements of the Department of Defense (DoD) and 

the IC. The NRO has facilitated great improvements to the 

quality and timeliness of information and the IC’s ability to 

deliver actionable intelligence to the warfighter. During 2007, 

the NRO implemented a new enterprise-wide information sharing 

management process. This new process not only improved 

communication to users in theater, but also improved the 

efficiency of system tasking, reducing demand on other national 

systems. Two information sharing tools are now in use by troops 

as a direct result of the new management process. 

The first of these information sharing tools developed by 

the NRO, the Analyst Support Architecture (ASA), is a multiintelligence correlation, display and analysis software tool 

designed to allow rapid integration of multi-source data into a 

scalable collaborative analysis environment. The ASA 

revolutionized the way DoD and IC analysts collaborate, share 

data, and see a common operating picture. It provides a 

correlated operational picture for the analyst to validate new 

and unusual activity. The ASA-detected events are displayed 

both graphically, textually and conveyed in the context of the 
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organization being monitored. In addition, the system contains 

numerous interactive tools which allow ad-hoc manipulation of 

the data to support user-driven analysis activities. The ASA 

system is currently being used aboard the U.S.S. Boxer and 

U.S.S. Nimitz. The Navy has praised the tool, citing improved 

efficiency and increased situational awareness since 

implementation. The Air Force is also actively using ASA in the 

National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) Operational 

Watch Center. Analysts at NASIC pass relevant information to 

tactical users in-theater. The success of ASA resulted in the 

Air Force decision to add ASA to its Electronic Systems Center 

(ESC) at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts. 

The second information sharing tool also developed by the 

NRO, the Threat Human Intelligence Reporting Evaluation Analysis 

and Display System (THREADS), is a multi-intelligence analytical 

tool that builds on human intelligence reports. THREADS takes 

individual human intelligence reports and autonomously searches 

correlating databases of NRO system data to find coincident 

information, allowing analysts to build case files and make 

judgments in support of operations. Forward-deployed units have 

successfully used THREADS to piece together information leading 

to the capture or death of enemy forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

The Air Force has also requested THREADS for use at the ESC. 
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 We continue to work closely with our mission partners to 

address challenges elevated by the changing threat landscape. 

Specifically, the NRO has coordinated with multiple agencies to 

help ensure warfighters have access to a broad spectrum of 

intelligence to support forces overseas. This collaboration has 

resulted in focused, meaningful intelligence for decision 

makers, analysts, and others in harms way. 

We’ve also made critical information technology investments 

to significantly decrease the time required to activate current 

and future cross-community networks. This new cross-cutting 

communications service provides a cost-effective solution for 

implementing current and future communications requirements for 

the NRO and IC partners. Perhaps one of the biggest lessons our 

nation learned from the tragedy of 9/11 is the need for 

communication across services and communities. Major efforts 

have been underway to accelerate information sharing, not just 

to the DoD, but across all our users. The NRO is playing a 

pivotal role in enabling information sharing between government 

and military organizations. This year, the NRO broke new ground 

to provide non-traditional intelligence users with capabilities 

to access national data. Similarly, the NRO has provided 

solutions for the Secret Service and National Guard Bureau to 

satisfy unmet information requirements. The NRO's efforts to 

enable information sharing are making it possible for Government 
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agencies and military organizations to work together as they 

protect our Nation. 

SPACE PROTECTION 

Threats to our space systems are growing. This requires a 

new way of thinking and a new way of addressing the challenges 

facing our community. It also requires we realize the threat 

exists end-to-end and any protection approach must take this 

into account. One significant step in space protection is the 

key role the NRO is taking, in concert with U.S. Strategic 

Command (USSTRATCOM) and Air Force Space Command, in laying the 

foundation for defensive space capabilities. Such capabilities, 

while vital to our survival, have also helped establish a 

framework for further cooperation. For example, as a result of 

operating as an integrated space community, the National 

Reconnaissance Operations Center now also serves as a back-up 

facility for elements of USSTRATCOM’s Joint Space Operations 

Center. This allows us to share the wealth of space situational 

awareness information we collect across multiple domains and 

provide a back-up capability with little additional cost. 

The complete protection picture also requires we take a 

careful look at the vulnerabilities on the ground as well as 

those in space; these vulnerabilities take many forms. As the 

NRO plays an increasingly visible role in the defense of our 
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Nation, we can also expect to increasingly become a target as 

well. The NRO is committed to protecting the information and 

assets that help us maintain our Nation’s freedom and security. 

REVOLUTIONIZING SPACE – ON THE GROUND 

The NRO's satellites provide critical support to 

policymakers, analysts, and front-line warfighters in the global 

war on terror. We are working to maintain these systems that 

have served us faithfully, many serving more than 25 years, as 

we proceed with acquisition of new, technologically advanced 

systems that can respond to evolving threats, and ensure the 

success of the United States against future adversaries. 

Before we can operate satellites that deliver critical 

support to the warfighter, we must design, develop, and procure 

those systems. Once procured, we must then launch, operate, and 

maintain each satellite to ensure accurate, timely, relevant 

intelligence is available to users when, where, and how they 

need it. 

In April 2006, the seeds of change were planted with the 

publication of the NRO’s Strategic Framework. The NRO 

recognized the challenges it faced and acknowledged the need to 

have better integration with our mission partners and customers, 

and a need to better emphasize the role of our ground systems. 
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The Strategic Framework defined two key goals for the NRO: Be 

the Foundation for Global Situational Awareness, and Deliver 

Information to Users on Timelines Important to Their Needs. 

While the NRO recognized the need to move in this direction, we 

were not organizationally aligned to do so at the time. 

Therefore, as part of the transformation process, I am 

implementing a transformation of the NRO’s structure. This is 

perhaps the most fundamental transformation ever undertaken by 

the NRO. It requires focused discipline and diligence to 

succeed, but I am convinced the risk of not doing so is even 

greater. This transformation involves significant managerial 

and organizational changes. It will facilitate a common mission 

management, establish a common services layer across our ground 

enterprise, consolidate operations, continue our focus on space 

system acquisition excellence, and create an enterprise-wide 

system engineering acquisition structure. This new framework 

will allow us to better manage our acquisitions and develop and 

operate our systems as a single, integrated architecture focused 

on sensor-agnostic solutions to intelligence problems. This, in 

turn, will help us use our systems more effectively to deliver 

value-added information where, and when it is needed most. 

This transformation has already begun to change our 

organizational, personnel, and business processes. In turn, 

these new processes are creating a better, more responsive 

organization; one that is meeting the challenges we face now, 
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and into the future. The NRO's restructuring efforts are 

designed to make the best use of limited resources in the face 

of evolving threats. We are rebuilding our architecture with 

more integrated intelligence solutions in mind. Instead of the 

traditional INT-centric approach, the NRO is working to create a 

fundamentally integrated architecture that will bring together 

the data from all sensors in ways that will refine products, 

streamline delivery, and create more value added content to 

improve the entire process for analysts and warfighters alike. 

INTEGRATED GROUND 

The NRO builds complete satellite systems, but an often 

under-appreciated aspect of this is the importance of the ground 

portion of these systems. Many of our newest capabilities are 

ground-based. Through ongoing algorithm development and 

processing improvements, we are providing quick-turnaround 

solutions to urgent user needs. This makes it clear that our 

most flexible "system" is not in space, but on the ground. 

Therefore, the key is to build a functional flexibility on our 

satellites which enables us to be operationally responsive on 

the ground. Responsive ground-based solutions are critical to 

the continued success of NRO systems against our Nation’s most 

daunting adversaries. 
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Recognizing the importance of the ground element to the 

entire NRO system architecture, one significant and foundational 

step in response to the strategic framework, has been the standup of the Ground Enterprise Directorate (GED). The GED is 

responsible for delivering a ground architecture integrated 

across the organization based on a multi-intelligence, ground 

system-of-systems that can provide near real-time responsiveness 

to pressing intelligence problems. By standing up the GED, we 

are taking the first vital step to ensure effective, flexible, 

seamless solutions to our customers needs across the IC, and to 

ensure that we have processes and systems that enable common 

tasking, timely cross-cueing, and a synergy that allows for 

immediate response. 

MULTI-Intelligence FUSION 

One of the many ground-based initiatives currently 

underway, with greatest impact on our customers, is multiintelligence fusion. This involves combining multiple sources 

of data from various collectors to develop new products yielding 

intelligence few sources could provide on their own. Recent 

activities have focused on efforts with both the National 

Security Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency 

(NGA) to combine geospatial products with other intelligence 

sources to create fused products for users. These products are 

generated using automated computer processing and information 
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integration techniques, accessed via a user-friendly interface. 

This valuable capability significantly improves analysts' 

ability to accurately describe and assess areas of interest. 

For example, the combination of geospatial intelligence and 

signals intelligence has resulted in a comprehensive, integrated 

product of particular value when applied to border protection 

and Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA). 

The NRO is currently working closely with the U.S. Navy and 

the Department of Homeland Security to find effective ways to 

assist them with border security. In seeking to address this 

challenge, many technologies, processes and procedures have been 

applied that combine several sources of intelligence to track 

sea-going vessels. Each of these intelligence sources provides 

information useful for tracking commercial vessels. Ship 

itineraries, port arrival and departure information available 

from open sources are combined with Signals Intelligence and 

Geospatial Intelligence data to yield visually detectable 

locations and identifiable features of the vessels. 

Alongside our mission partners, the NRO has helped lead the 

way in demonstrating how multiple sources of data brought into a 

multi-intelligence domain yield far more intelligence. Large 

quantities of positional data on ship locations, traffic 

patterns and activity within certain areas of interest may 
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provide a few data points on a screen, but when fused with 

imagery and signals intelligence, analysts can quickly and 

easily determine false data sets and provide added-value to 

products more typically derived from single intelligence 

sources. Simply put, fusing multiple types of traditional data 

in non-traditional ways can exponentially increase the value of 

the intelligence the user receives. 

In addition to our multi-intelligence capabilities 

supporting MDA, the NRO is providing operational support to 

Lt. General Metz at the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat 

Organization. We have established a functional team within the 

NRO, dedicated to providing our warfighters with a number of 

multi-intelligence capabilities focused on detecting and 

tracking our enemies engaging in developing and deploying these 

lethal devices. To date, we have made notable progress 

addressing this challenge. 

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT COLLABORATION 

The NRO operates as part of a larger research and 

development (R&D) community, working with mission partners, 

members of the DoD, and the IC to determine the best path 

forward for our national reconnaissance and broader ISR efforts. 

This community is not limited to a small group of scientists. 

As intelligence problems grow and as new threats emerge, we are 
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committing to work even more closely as a community to harness 

our great innovative capabilities to overcome challenges 

together. 

In an effort to combine our broad intellectual assets to 

solve these difficult problems, in fiscal year 2007 (FY 07) and 

FY 08 the NRO played a key role in providing services to 

facilitate collaboration across several international R&D 

organizations. 

Perhaps the most significant achievement in 2007 was the 

instantiation of the Virtual Laboratory (VL) network. The VL, a 

shared communication network, is the first of its kind, and has 

quickly become the primary collaboration tool for international 

R&D initiatives. The objectives of R&D organizations using the 

VL include demonstrating the technologies and techniques 

necessary to support federated exploitation in a collaborative 

environment. Currently, over 20 active classified R&D projects 

between two or more of the partners are being worked over the 

VL. Since its inception, the VL has been under NGA management 

as an R&D project. 

This year the NRO has accepted NGA's request, supported by 

the VL partners, to assume the executive agent management and 

oversight role for the VL transport segments and network 
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security, certification and accreditation functions. In this 

role, the NRO is now responsible for providing leadership and 

technical support across many R&D organizations to facilitate 

the exchange of new technology information. By upgrading the VL 

into a professionally run network designed with future growth in 

mind, the NRO has put into place the foundational infrastructure 

for present and future international R&D collaboration. 

CONCLUSION 

While I am confident the NRO is headed in the right 

direction to meet the needs of the warfighter and the IC, there 

will always be new challenges that require our vigilant 

attention. I will continue to work these areas aggressively 

during my tenure as Director of the National Reconnaissance 

Office. 

I appreciate the continued strong support of Congress, and 

this Committee. This support is vital to our continued delivery 

of critical capabilities today, and meeting the warfighter needs 

of tomorrow. I look forward to working with you as we continue 

to develop, produce, launch, and operate critical space systems 

and ground systems vital to our Nation’s warfighters and the 

intelligence community. 

 Scott F. Large