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Cache of documents declassified by the NRO for its 60th anniversary
- starwind 5y agoLetter explaining some of the information available here: https://www.nro.gov/Portals/65/documents/news/press/2021/2021-06-60th%20Anniversary%20Declassification_11162021.pdf?ver=6gMfU8oaNfe2TESDKCodlw%3D%3D https://www.nro.gov/Portals/65/documents/news/press/2021/202... "The SIGINT satellite story" looks interesting: https://www.nro.gov/Portals/65/documents/foia/declass/HISTORICALLY%20SIGNIFICANT%20DOCs/NRO%2060th%20Anniversary%20Docs/SC-2021-00003_C05134315.pdf https://www.nro.gov/Portals/65/documents/foia/declass/HISTOR...
- 0des 5y agotitle should be "its" not "it's"
- programd 5y agoRandomly skimming the documents, this is my favorite line so far from a document discussing funding and competition for a new recon satellite system [1] "Mr. Duckett commented that the Governmant had been carful not to pry too deeply into this area because there were a number of "gentleman's agreements" between contractors" Sounds very pragmatic of them. [1] https://www.nro.gov/Portals/65/documents/foia/declass/MAJOR%20NRO%20PROGRAMS%20&%20PROJECTS/NRO%20EOI/SC-2016-00001_C05093188.pdf https://www.nro.gov/Portals/65/documents/foia/declass/MAJOR%...
- CamperBob2 5y agoAlso worth noting that the Deputy SecDef present, David Packard, was the Dave Packard.
- hashhar 5y agoFor others wondering - he's the Packard from Hewlett-Packard which people know better as HP.
- CamperBob2 5y agoWhat struck me reading through those memos is that Packard wasn't just going through the motions or (overtly) looking to finagle HP procurement deals, but that he was actually approaching the job like a professional manager, conducting dialogue between the executive and legislative branches in an effective and informed way. 1970s: Captains of industry take time away from their companies to act as public servants and provide useful advice and experience at top levels of government 2020s: Captains of industry flame US Senators to a crisp on Twitter
- onychomys 5y agoIt seems so weird that they're still redacting things from the late 1960s. All of the technology they're talking about in those memos has been far surpassed by even commercial enterprises, so who even cares anymore?
- yepthatsreality 5y agoTo erase intent, blame, liability, and responsibility.
- starwind 5y agoThere's basically no consequences for overclassification, but the penalty for underclassification could be a job loss (or in the extremely unlikely case, jail)
- edm0nd 5y agoIt could also risk death if it exposed anyone in the field
- ffhhj 5y agoJust imagine what a time traveler could do with that information.
- takeda 5y agoPretty much any information is much more valuable if you can go back in time.
- madars 5y agoI don't think we know that all tech has been eclipsed commercially. Recall that in 2012 NRO donated two unused, spare satellites to NASA that were superior to the Hubble telescope https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_National_Reconnaissance_Office_space_telescope_donation_to_NASA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_National_Reconnaissance_O... and when President Trump tweeted out a, presumably NRO-sourced, picture it was at ~10cm resolution or better https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanocallaghan/2019/09/01/trump-accidentally-revealed-the-amazing-resolution-of-u-s-spy-satellites/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanocallaghan/2019/09/01/t... . More to the point, there are sensors that are not commercially interesting but could be interesting for NRO's mission.
- uejfiweun 5y agoThe NRO is very spooky. Word on the street is that their tech is decades ahead of what is publicly available. I personally wonder what kind of crazy capabilities they have all the time. This is going to sound stupid, but I think the NRO may have photonic supercomputers that are being used in combination with satellites to scrape the activity of every computer on the planet. They have had programs such as TEMPEST for years which aim to understand what a computer is doing through analysis of it's EM emissions. Imagine a satellite network tuned to these frequencies, pointed at the ground at all times, collecting and analyzing what all computers are doing all the time using unfathomable processing power - I think such a thing may be feasible. Another cool spook program is SENTIENT which is also under the NRO. It is an automated intelligence analysis system which monitors the globe autonomously. Check out the movie "Eagle Eye" for IMO a pretty accurate depiction of what this system may look like in practice.
- dylan604 5y agoWasn't Eagle Eye based on ECHELON?
- woodruffw 5y agoThe NRO struggles to put normal reconnaissance satellites in the sky[1]. Special satellites with enough juice to Van Eck your screen from LEO (or HEO) feels like a stretch. All things being equal, it's probably easier for the USG (or any government) to just MITM you or exploit the crappy router in your closet. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Imagery_Architecture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Imagery_Architecture
- uejfiweun 5y agoI personally am always skeptical whenever I see a "cancelled" program like this. It is a near certainty that some officially cancelled programs continued development in the classified world, such as the SR-72 or the UCAV. Admittedly I know nothing, and it's probable that I'm just blowing air out my ass. But I would LOVE to believe that the USG has got some crazy tech up their sleeve. Because hopefully one day they will declassify it and allow for commercial development, just like they did with computers and the internet.
- posnet 5y agoThe NRO have the best mission patches. NROL-39 seems to be the crowd-pleaser. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NRO_launches https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NRO_launches
- jamesfe 5y agoWhat you really want is NROL-11 which inadvertently revealed the classified location of the payload: https://gizmodo.com/decoding-hidden-messages-in-those-geeky-spy-satellite-m-1671164600 https://gizmodo.com/decoding-hidden-messages-in-those-geeky-...
- Robotbeat 5y agoMy favorite might be the one with Elvish on it. They're all so varied. Obscure literature references would be a good way of making sure foreign intelligence officers are well-read! :D
- sergiomattei 5y agoNROL 39 is absolutely iconic.
- edm0nd 5y agoYou can find a bunch of eBay if you search for 'NRO launch patch'.
- twic 5y agoMy main conclusion from reviewing this list is that there are a lot of furries working at NRO.
- codetrotter 5y agoHow so? The names look mostly astronomical to me.
- CTDOCodebases 5y agoNRO have most of the best ones but this patch has to be my favourite: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/509th_Operations_Group#/media/File:USAF_-_509th_Operations_Group_Unofficial_Patch.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/509th_Operations_Group#/media/... For anyone interested Trevor Paglen wrote a book about these patches. His talk at CCC is one of my all time favourites. Towards the end he provides the background to some of these patches: https://media.ccc.de/v/30C3_-_5604_-_en_-_saal_1_-_201312282300_-_seeing_the_secret_state_six_landscapes_-_trevor_paglen#t=80 https://media.ccc.de/v/30C3_-_5604_-_en_-_saal_1_-_201312282...
- whartung 5y ago60th Anniversary? So many anniversaries. Anniversary of its founding (1960) [1]. Anniversary of the first public mention (1971). Anniversary of first official acknowledgment (1973). Anniversary of its existence being declassified (1992). NRO -- abbreviation for "We'd tell you, but then we'd have to kill you." [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Reconnaissance_Office#Existence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Reconnaissance_Office...
- 1cvmask 5y agoAnd on that anniversary the Russians did a anti-satellite missile test: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/nov/16/russia-defends-anti-satellite-missile-test https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/nov/16/russia-defen... https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/15/politics/russia-anti-satellite-weapon-test-scn/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/15/politics/russia-anti-sate...
- dboreham 5y agoA few years ago during at stay at a villa/condo resort in Maui, grilling dinner, I discovered that my "grill mate" cooking his family's dinner on the adjacent grill, worked for NRO. That was an interesting conversation... Actually...he didn't "work" for NRO -- he told me that pretty much nobody works for NRO per se, but he worked "in" NRO, employed by some other TLA.
- KennyBlanken 5y agoPeople who work for intelligence agencies generally do not randomly tell complete strangers on their vacation that they work for intelligence agencies. I don't know what you do for work, but he might have been trying to manipulate you. It's a common trick to disclose a 'secret' to someone to get them to trust you.
- edm0nd 5y agoImagine reading HN to only find out you were manipulated on vacation by someone