24 - Space-Library

an order of magnitude, but is five orders of magnitude below
where it needs to be, Carlson said. “It’s incredibly difficult to
take a picture someplace and fuse it with signals intelligence,
that you might have a million pieces of, and sort that all out and
geolocate it rapidly,” he said. “But in many cases we’re able to
do that … in minutes or less.” One promising example of fusion
is the “red dot” system, Carlson said, which pinpoints the signals
emitted by roadside bombs set for electronic detonation. “We do
a lot of work to make sure that we know what those signals are,
where they’re coming from, and geolocate them,” he said. That
data generates a red dot on displays in military vehicles or
command posts to show high probability of an explosive, he
added. “I can’t tell you exactly how we do that, but it’s a pretty
clever set of technologies,” the director said. “What it has meant
is that, even though we still have an unacceptable loss from
[roadside bombs], we are catching a lot of them before they’re
detonated.” The system has been in place for approximately six
months and has been about 80 percent effective, he added. NRO
was also “instrumental” to the NATO operation in Libya,
ensuring the air campaign was successful, Carlson said. The NRO
feeds data to military commanders, he said, but it is also a key
strategic asset, serving the National Security Agency and
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. There will always be
wants to assess foreign weapon systems and a combat
commander’s need to know where and how many cell phones are
operating in a particular enemy area, the director noted. Whether
identifying insurgent behavior patterns or focusing on larger
national security questions, Carlson said, “My job is to … get the
most out of a sensor.” There are only so many satellites in orbit,
so NRO has an inclusive and responsive process to allocate its
24-hour capabilities, he said. “What that allows us to do is very
rapidly … worldwide and throughout our architecture, tune those
systems,” he said. An example is an aircraft bailout requiring a
search-and-rescue effort, he said. “We can, within a matter of
seconds, turn an incredible number of our sensors on a specific
area,” he added. Carlson said during NRO’s next 50 years, the
challenges are to do what it now does even better, and to
develop more in-space capability. “We know what we have to do
-- we have to provide the best, integrated intelligence in the
world,” he said. “Now, [we have to] do it faster and cheaper.”
Space satellites have always focused downward, and now need
to be able to look around and up as well, he said. “Because
space is more congested and more contested and more
competitive … we’ve got to build systems that continue to be
much more adaptable,” he said. “Space reconnaissance --
that’s my job.”
competition between, for example, the information an analyst
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=65364
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Friday, Sep. 16, 2011 www.bradenton.com/
KIMBERLY DOZIER - AP Intelligence Writer
超 秘 密 衛 星 スパイ・ショップである NRO が 50 周 年 Ultrasecret satellite spy shop NRO turns 50
Navy SEAL raid against Osama bin Laden and to guiding NATO
and rebel forces in Libya, Carlson said. The NRO was founded
during the Cold War on Sept. 6, 1961, to spy on the Soviet Union,
China and other enemies in the U.S. battle against communism.
Carson
As it turns 50, the ultra-secretive National Reconnaissance
Office is putting a multibillion-dollar misstep behind it and casting
its spy satellites on new enemies, from al-Qaida bomb planters
to North Korean nuclear engineers, according to its chief. The
agency has launched six satellites in seven months, "the best
we've done in about 25 years," said director Bruce Carlson,
ticking off what he saw as milestones during rare comments
Thursday to reporters. Data gathered from the NRO's Gorgon
Stare of satellites - named for the mythological gaze that could
turn a person to stone - was hailed as key to helping plan the
Today it operates satellites to spot roadside bombs in
Afghanistan, helping combat arguably the enemy's deadliest
weapon in America's latest war. The NRO still spies on Russia
and China. Carlson, a former Air Force general, was blisteringly
blunt about the NRO's recent mistakes; namely, how it ran up a
multibillion-dollar bill trying to develop the failed "Future Imagery
Architecture" satellite program. FIA, as it was known, was
supposed to create a new generation of smaller, cheaper optical
and radar satellites. Instead, the Boeing program never took off,
literally. Carlson called it "a colossal failure," but, without going
into details, he said the program was now "back on track." FIA
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