$1.5 BILLION SECRET IN SKY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75B00326R000200210005-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 21, 2002
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: December 9, 1973
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2002/08/01 : CIA-RDP75B00326R000200210005-6
THE WASHINGTON POST
Sunday, Dec. 9, 1973
$llior~ Secret. in Sky
U.S. Sly\Unit Surfaces by Accident
BY Laurence StL ?n` , drafters of the report unwittingly breach-
wash aton Post Staff W-rtter ed security by listing, along with CIA,
In the are ne and heavily' classified DIA and NSA on the concluding page, the
world. of "o"verhead" reconnaisarc , and National Reconnaissance Office. /
spy satellite intelligence, the ezitence And, more obliquely, Sen. .William Prox-
of the National Reconnaissance Office has mire (D-Wis.) alluded to the NRO's -mis-
been one', of the' best. kept trade to,-, siori in a recent statement challenging
secrets. the appointment of Lockheed Aircraft
The ngme' of the organization, in fact, Corp. reconnaissance satellite expert
is top secret, and, according to ' intelli- James W. Plummer as under secretary
gence .officials, has appeared in public of the Air Force.
print only once before-by inadvertence. In questioning Plum'mer's nomination
Yet the NRO, which is funded primar-' on conflict-of-interest grounds, Proxmire
ily through ..Air Force appropriations, made a pointed 'observation:
spends an estimated $1.5 billion a year "Normally, the. under secretary-of the
acquiring and managing the most sophis- Air Force has jurisdiction over certain
ticated, elusive and expensive force of intelligence matters and sits on a special
spies that has ever been recruited into -committee that directs manned and un-
the government's service. manned overhead reconnaissance,.includ-
Its customers include the Central-In- ing spy satellite programs. These critical
telligence- Agency, National : Security projects have run into the billions of
Agencyl Defense Intelligence agency and dollars-money.tfiat flows/to defense con-
the White' House.; Its operatives bear such. tractors such as -Lockheed."
nambs as` SR-71,Samos," Agena, and-"the Plummer has been with Lockheed since
Big Bird." Its activities are screened off 1955. The California based . firm -is the ',
from''.a1 but`a relative handful of special- principal corporate" contractor 1 in the
fists lithe national security bureaucracy so-called "black", reconnaissance satellite
who eirry some of the highest and most programs carried out by NRO
speci4hFed, clearannces _Issued by,rythe gov From.the "skunk works,"; as specialists
'nt describe the facility, of Lockheed"spy
~usly -;enough, , the only reference plane developer Kelley 'Johnson-in Ne-,
at has been Made ,in a public vada also emerged the U-2 and SR-71.
document was last Oct. 12 in - "The U-2 `was perhaps ' the only govern-
-he?Special Senate Committee ment spy 'project to have a'cos't'under
~itions Related to Secret and {~~
Government Documents. The /see RECON, A9, Col. 7
Approved For Release 2002/08/01 : CIA-RDP75B00326R000200210005-6
 0-itt't1YI UU -Jpy. U 1Yf l
p
udmu Its' Nam
cw? hd to exce>rd.the prom- 1960s, They most publicized
iseid %; performance S 't a n d - use of. the program was to
aryls,'! said ;,:one expert , .on support . President Kenne-
theiprogram. Lockheed was dy's contention that the So-.
also `'ithe ? prince . contractor viet Union was installing ofd
an '!the ,'C?5A, which . was fen'sive missiles in Cuba.-
plagued, by;, $2.. billlion 1 in But congressional investV ;
combined .cost" overruns. gators in yet unpublicized
Iii addition. to the conflict- inquiries are raising ques-
of>interrest'. issue in?'.Plum- tions about relationships b
e
mer's ;appglntinent, co6gres- tween corporate contractors'
signal investigators'arelook- and the super-secret pro-,
ing intd'the'; possib1ities` of grams being carried out un-
overruns, in. the supersecret der the aegis of NRO and,
reconnaissance satellite pro- other military intelligence
grams under NRO's jurisdic- agencies.
Lion. Proxmire's concern about,,
"I've. never' heard of one the Plummer appointment is
of, these programs that one example of this. Air
didn't have enormous cost i Force S retary John L. Me-
overruns,". said one Defense Lucas came to the govern-
Department official who has ment from' the Air Force
worked first-hand with some think tank, MITRE. Asslst-
of the spy satellite opera- ant Air Force Secretary for
tions.. The opportunities for p r o c u r e m e n t Frank,
breaking-cost and perform- Schrantz comes from Hoe-r;
ante ?:. commitments are ing.
greater in spy satellite pro- "There has been a tend
grams, this official said, be- ency, stronger than ever in
cause 'of the; atmosphere of recent months, to put exeeU,?
secrecy- and .narrow chan- tives of contractor agenciies
nels of accountability in in these key positions," said
which they operate. . one veteran Defense Deport
NRO's , ? existence is ment official. "Not that
shielded from senior con- there is anything personally
gressional intelligence over- wrong with these men. But
seers. Former high-ranking all their attitudes have been
staff members of the Na- shaped by their experience -
tional Security Council, who working for contractors. ?
were cleared for some of the The late Allen Ellender,
most sensitive intelligence (D-La.), former chairman !of;`
material to `reach the Presi- the Senate Appropriationis:
dent's desk,_ acknowledged Committee, was one of the
in interviews that they had . few members of Congress
not been informed about it. privy to some of govern-
"This is. a -black program ment's best-kept intelligence
and you're not supposed to secrets, and rhubarbs,
know.. it exists," said one ' "If you knew how much
Pentagon administrator. For money we spend and how
the past several years its su- much money . we waste In
pervision has . nominally ' this area," Ellender said in a
been in'the hands of the un- 1971 interview, "it would
der, secretary of the Air , knock you off your chair,"
Force. Operations . and pro- It's criminal."
curement have been han-. :;Whatever that amount
dlodthrough .the office of ` might be will probably,
the' Secretary ' of the Air, never appear in the public
Force, according to Defense, , domain.
Department sources.
Its intelligence products
labeled . ELINT. (for elec-
tronic intelligence) and
OMiNT) (for communica-
tions intelligence) are par-
celed,out under special code
names to. the government '
"consumers"-such as CIA
or NSA'. The users :may get
the product of the secret re-
connaissance, such,as moni-
toring "of Chinese nuclear
tests, or'radio transmissions
In the Soviet Union, without
being told of the collection
techniques. This is, known as
"compartmentalizing" of in-
telligence data.
Since the inception of the
U. S.' reconnaissance satel-
lite'i program in ' the mid-
1950s to 1970 some $10 to $12
billion had, been spent -on
the spy: birds, according to
an estimate by aviation and
space writer Philip J. Klass
in his, book, "Secret, Sentries
in Space." Since 'then the
outlay may have' grown by
about $5 billion.
Overhead reconnaissance
has proven of enormous
value in providing; more re-
alistic assessments of such
things as Soviet ballistic
missile capability, both oApproved For Release 2002/08/01 CIA-RDP75B00326R000200210005-6
fensive and defensive. It
helped, in fact, to defuse