page_title: National Reconnaissance Office
section_title: Organization
hierarchical_section_title: National Reconnaissance Office / Organization
caption_attribution_description: Organizational Chart of the National Reconnaissance Office
context_page_description: The National Reconnaissance Office is a member of the United States Intelligence Community and an agency of the United States Department of Defense. NRO is considered, along with the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, to be one of the "big five" U.S. intelligence agencies. The NRO is headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia, 2 miles south of the Washington Dulles International Airport.
  It designs, builds, launches, and operates the reconnaissance satellites of the U.S. federal government, and provides satellite intelligence to several government agencies, particularly signals intelligence to the NSA, imagery intelligence to the NGA, and measurement and signature intelligence to the DIA.
  The Director of the NRO reports to both the Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of Defense. The NRO's federal workforce is a hybrid organization consisting of some 3000 personnel including NRO cadre, Air Force, Army, CIA, NGA, NSA, and Navy personnel.
context_section_description: The NRO is part of the Department of Defense. The Director of the NRO is appointed by the President of the United States, by and with the consent of the Senate in accordance with Title 50 of U.S. code. Traditionally, the position was given to either the Under Secretary of the Air Force or the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space, but with the appointment of Donald Kerr as Director of the NRO in July 2005 the position is now independent. The Agency is organized as follows:
  Principal Deputy Director of the NRO (PDDNRO)
  Reports to and coordinates with the DNRO on all NRO activities and handles the daily management of the NRO with decision responsibility as delegated by the DNRO; and,
  In the absence of the Director, acts on behalf of the DNRO.
  Deputy Director of the NRO (DDNRO) 
  Senior USAF General Officer. Represents the civilian/uniformed USAF personnel assigned to the NRO;
  Assists both the DNRO and PDDNRO in the daily direction of the NRO; and,
  Coordinates activities between the USAF and the NRO.
  The Corporate Staff
  Encompasses all those support functions such as legal, diversity, human resources, security/counterintelligence, procurement, public affairs, etc. necessary for the day-to-day operation of the NRO and in support of the DNRO, PDNRO, and DDNRO.
  Office of Space Launch (OSL)
  Responsible for all aspects of a satellite launch including launch vehicle hardware, launch services integration, mission assurance, operations, transportation, and mission safety; and,
  OSL is NRO's launch representative with industry, the USAF, and NASA.
  Advanced Systems and Technology Directorate (AS&T)
  Invents and delivers advanced technologies;
  Develops new sources and methods; and,
  Enables multi-intelligence solutions.
  Business Plans and Operations (BPO)
  Responsible for all financial and budgetary aspects of NRO programs and operations; and,
  Coordinates all legislative, international, and public affairs communications.
  Communications Systems Acquisition Directorate (COMM)
  Supports the NRO by providing communications services through physical and virtual connectivity; and,
  Enables the sharing of mission critical information with mission partners and customers.
  Ground Enterprise Directorate (GED)
  Provides an integrated ground system that sends timely information to users worldwide.
  Geospatial Intelligence Systems Acquisition Directorate (GEOINT)
  Responsible for acquiring NRO's technologically advanced imagery collection systems, which provides geospatial intelligence data to the Intelligence Community and the military.
  Management Services and Operations (MS&O)
  Provides services such as facilities support, transportation and warehousing, logistics, and other business support, which the NRO needs to operate on a daily basis.
  Mission Operations Directorate (MOD) 
  Operates, maintains and reports the status of NRO satellites and their associated ground systems;
  Manages the 24-hour NRO Operations Center (NROC) which, working with U.S Strategic Command, provides defensive space control and space protection, monitors satellite flight safety, and provides space situational awareness.
  Mission Integration Directorate (MID)
  Engages with users of NRO systems to understand their operational and intelligence problems and provide solutions in collaboration with NRO's mission partners.
  Manages the Tactical Defense Space Reconnaissance (TacDSR) Program to directly answer emerging warfighting intelligence requirements of the Combatant Commands (CCMDs), Services, and other tactical users as funded by the Department of Defense (DoD) Military Intelligence Program (MIP).
  Signals Intelligence Systems Acquisition Directorate (SIGINT)
  This directorate builds and deploys NRO's signals intelligence satellite systems that collect communication, electronic, and foreign instrumentation signals intelligence.
  Systems Engineering Directorate (SED)
  Provides beginning-to-end systems engineering for all of NRO's systems.
caption: NRO Organizational Chart (Sep. 2010)
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