60th Anniversary of the National Reconnaissance Office

Floor Speech

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Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize the 60th anniversary of the National Reconnaissance Office, NRO.

Born in September 1961, the present day National Reconnaissance Office was formed by agreement between the Secretary of Defense and the Director of Central Intelligence during the height of the Cold War. In the first decade of the Cold War, American ingenuity and engineering had enabled significant advances to meet the demand for better reconnaissance as new, high-altitude aircraft like the U-2 and its high-speed successors, the A-12 and SR-71, were developed. However, even this new technology had its limitations. This became acutely clear with the shoot-down of CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers' U-2 in 1960. Thankfully, American aerospace engineers were also maturing new rocket and sensor technologies that enabled the United States to meet the increasing national security challenge of how to analyze Soviet forces to avert a nuclear war.

Carrying over from the Eisenhower to Kennedy administrations, a group of remarkable Americans brought the foresight of combining a number of government satellite efforts into a single U.S. intelligence organization that would become the modem NRO. These optical experts, chemists, physicists, engineers, military officers, mathematicians, and photography entrepreneurs recognized the value of a national policy of peacetime strategic reconnaissance in addressing the Soviet threat as well as future, unforeseen, national security challenges.

Assuming control of the previously initiated Corona photoreconnaissance program and following up with the Gambit, Hexagon, and signals intelligence programs, the NRO was able to supply the essential intelligence information needed to understand Soviet missile capabilities. The intelligence information the NRO provided to analysts and policymakers was critical in keeping nuclear tensions in check at the most tense points of the Cold War.

With the arms limitation treaties of the 1970s, the need for the verification of Soviet military capabilities posed a new challenge for policymakers. The scientists and engineers of the NRO would once again rise to the challenge by designing and building the Kennen digital imagery satellite and other unique overhead technological capabilities to respond to these daunting intelligence requirements.

In recent times, the capabilities of the NRO have been vital to helping us better understand and react to our Nation's toughest challenges, helping to see the unseen across the globe, from the hunt for Osama bin Laden and supporting counterterrorism operations around the globe, to helping us recover from natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires here at home.

While this 60th anniversary is an appropriate time to celebrate the rich history and innovations of the NRO of the past, I think it is also important to recognize where the NRO is moving today and into the future and for the American people to understand why the NRO is so vital to our security.

Our colleagues on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and I have challenged the NRO to move faster in building and acquiring the next generation of space reconnaissance capabilities, including commercial technologies, as the great power competition with Russia and China takes shape.

NRO is rising to this challenge. Even as the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted so many parts of our society, economy, and supply chain, the NRO's workforce has stayed on task. In the last 18 months the NRO has not only maintained 100 percent of its mission capability, but the NRO also has had a record series of launches and payload deliveries into orbit, with 8 launches and 16 payloads in 2020 and 2021, including a launch from Wallops Island, in the Commonwealth of Virginia. I am also pleased to point out that the NRO also delivered its 12th consecutive clean financial audit during this pandemic period.

The NRO of today and tomorrow is growing its partnerships in both the private and public sectors. Within the Department of Defense, the NRO is partnering with the U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command to integrate national space operations with the combatant commander and Federal decision-maker requirements and to protect and defend our Nation's assets in space.

Likewise, the NRO is increasing engagement with allies, and particularly the Five Eyes nations, to better leverage capabilities and take advantage of new opportunities, such as the NRO's first satellite launch from an overseas location in 2020 from New Zealand. The NRO works side by side with intelligence community partners such as the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to support the NGA's imagery analysis mission and the National Security Agency to support the NSA's analysis of signals and radio frequency signatures.

In the private sector arena, the NRO is building off a 60-year history of working with U.S. industry by embracing the benefits of the growing U.S. commercial space industry and delivering more capabilities at a lower cost to the taxpayers, taking advantage of a full range of services from commercial imagery and commercial cloud services to commercial launch.

Speeding innovation in anticipation of tomorrow's intelligence needs, the NRO is working with universities and research institutions across the Nation, looking for new ways to adapt existing capabilities and to bring online new technologies, The NRO is pushing the boundaries of advanced science and technology for new phenomenology and applications that will improve and enhance the NRO's ability to provide policymakers and warfighters with advanced warning of events and provide critical insights into the capabilities and intentions of our adversaries.

None of this work could be done without the women and men of the NRO. The NRO workforce, a blend of military, civilian, and contract employees, is one of the most technical and highly skilled in the government. They are engineers, scientists, IT professionals, space system operators, and acquisition and program managers, with advanced degrees and a diversity of backgrounds and experiences. They are some of the best our Nation has to offer. They are the vital piece that makes the NRO not only a great place to work but makes the NRO the best place to work if you want to build the satellites, rockets, and ground systems that support our national security.

From the NRO pioneers to the workforce of today, the women and men of the NRO can always be counted on to stand true to their motto, ``Supra Et Ultra,'' always going Above and Beyond. I offer my congratulations to the NRO on an exceptional 60 years, and I look forward to seeing how the NRO will lead us into the next 60 years of space reconnaissance.

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