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![]() NRO headquarters at night | |
Agency overview | |
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Formed | Established: August 25, 1960 Declassified: September 18, 1992 |
Jurisdiction | United States |
Headquarters | Chantilly, Virginia, U.S. |
Motto | Supra Et Ultra (Above And Beyond) |
Annual budget | Classified |
Agency executive |
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Parent agency | Department of Defense |
Website | www |
Part of a series on the |
United States space program |
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The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is a member of the United States Intelligence Community and an agency of the United States Department of Defense which designs, builds, launches, and operates the reconnaissance satellites of the U.S. federal government. It provides satellite intelligence to several government agencies, particularly signals intelligence (SIGINT) to the NSA, imagery intelligence (IMINT) to the NGA, and measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT) to the DIA.[4] The NRO announced in 2023 that it plans within the following decade to quadruple the number of satellites it operates and increase the number of signals and images it delivers by a factor of ten.[5]
NRO is considered, along with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Security Agency (NSA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), to be one of the "big five" U.S. intelligence agencies.[6] The NRO is headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia,[7] 2 miles (3.2 km) south of the Washington Dulles International Airport.
The Director of the NRO reports to both the Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of Defense.[8] The NRO's federal workforce is a hybrid organization consisting of some 3,000 personnel including NRO cadre, Air Force, Army, CIA, NGA, NSA, Navy and US Space Force[9] personnel.[10] A 1996 bipartisan commission report described the NRO as having by far the largest budget of any intelligence agency, and "virtually no federal workforce", accomplishing most of its work through "tens of thousands" of defense contractor personnel.[11] From its founding in 1961 the NRO's existence was classified and not revealed publicly until 1992.[12]
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