[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 185 (Thursday, October 21, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S7151]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





         60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE

  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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