National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is an agency under the United States Department of Defense (DoD) that develops and operates overhead reconnaissance systems and satellites and conducts intelligence-related activities for U.S. national security. Officially established in September of 1961, the NRO operated as a classified agency until September of 1992, when the U.S. Government declassified the NRO and its operations. The NRO is one of eighteen Intelligence Community (IC) agencies of the United States. As of 2021, Dr. Chris Scolese serves as Director of the NRO, a position he has held since 2019. He is the 19th NRO Director and the first to be appointed by the president and senate confirmed.

The NRO's primary responsibility is to design, build, launch, and maintain America's intelligence satellites. The NRO uses these systems to provide intelligence to its key customers and mission partners within the U.S. Government, which include: policy makers; the Armed Services; the Intelligence Community; Departments of State, Justice and Treasury; and civil agencies. NRO systems are used for a variety of capabilities, which include the following:

• Monitoring the expansion of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs)
• Tracking international terrorists, drug traffickers, and criminal organizations
• Developing military targeting data and bomb damage assessments
• Supporting international peacekeeping and humanitarian relief efforts
• Evaluating the impact of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and fires.

Along with other DoD satellites, NRO systems provide global communications, precise navigation, early warning of missile launches or potential military attacks, signals intelligence, and near real-time imagery to support U.S. forces and counterterrorism activities. Additionally, NRO satellites are used to track climate disasters, assess crop production, and address other environmental and civil concerns.

The NRO has its origins in the Corona Program, a U.S. reconnaissance program launched by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1960 for photographic surveillance of the U.S.S.R. and China. The successful launch of the Discoverer I, the first object intended for polar orbit and "scientific cover" for the Corona Program, fueled the U.S. vision to develop a space reconnaissance program. This vision was further supported when President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the Air Force Office of Missile and Satellite Systems (SAF/MSS) on August 31, 1960. One year later, President John F. Kennedy's administration moved all reconnaissance satellite and airborne oversight activities into the National Reconnaissance Program (NRP). The SAF/MSS was absorbed by a new organization on September 6, 1961, when the CIA and DoD formed the highly classified NRO to oversee and manage all NRP activities.

The NRO remained a secret organization within the Intelligence Community until 1992, when the NRO and its mission were declassified to the public. The organization encountered controversy in 1995, when The Washington Post revealed that the NRO had accumulated unspent funds totaling more than $1 billion and kept it a secret from supervisors at the Pentagon, the CIA, and its overseers in Congress. Sensitive information about the NRO, including the organization's budget and monitoring activities, was leaked to the public by intelligence contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013.

Exact funding for the NRO is classified and not available to the public. However, in 2013, Edward Snowden leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) to various journalists. Among other things, these leaks contained information on classified funding for the intelligence community, nicknamed the "black budget." In 2013, The Washington Post reported from documents leaked by Snowden that the "black budget" for fiscal year 2013 was around $52.6 billion, with the CIA, NSA, and NRO set to receive more than 68% of it. The Washington Post also reported that the NRO received around $10.3 billion for fiscal year 2013, a 12% increase since 2004.

NRO funding is taken from the U.S. Intelligence Budget. The Intelligence Budget has two major components: the National Intelligence Program (NIP) and the Military Intelligence Program (MIP). For the Fiscal Year of 2022, the NIP requested a budget of $62.3 billion.