{"id":27753,"date":"2019-04-11T17:01:22","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T17:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/04\/11\/national-reconnaissance-office-could-join-space-force-down-the-road-shanahan-says\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:20:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:20:25","slug":"national-reconnaissance-office-could-join-space-force-down-the-road-shanahan-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/pentagon\/2019\/04\/11\/national-reconnaissance-office-could-join-space-force-down-the-road-shanahan-says\/","title":{"rendered":"National Reconnaissance Office could join Space Force down the road, Shanahan says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 Acting Defense Secretary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/space\/2019\/04\/09\/chinese-threats-necessitate-new-space-structures-shanahan-warns\/\" target=_blank>Patrick Shanahan<\/a> on Thursday indicated there could be an integration of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/c2-comms\/satellites\/2019\/02\/07\/trump-nominates-new-leader-for-spy-satellite-agency\/\" target=_blank>National Reconnaissance Office<\/a> into the Space Force down the line, despite a decision to leave the NRO on its own for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speaking to the Senate Armed Services Committee about the formation of Space Force, Shanahan was asked by ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I., why the NRO wasn\u2019t put under the potential new branch of the military. Shanahan\u2019s answer: The Defense Department didn\u2019t want to delay a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/space\/2019\/04\/08\/rep-mike-turner-on-why-hes-softened-on-space-force-and-the-importance-of-an-east-coast-missile-defense-site\/\" target=_blank>Space Force<\/a> while it figures out how to work NRO into the picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe bias in the proposal is towards speed. The proposal we submitted really represents the stakeholders that we have control of,\u201d Shanahan told the committee, adding that technical discussions could \u201cat one point and time\u201d enable an integration between the intelligence agency and the Pentagon.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/space\/2019\/04\/09\/welcome-to-the-pentagons-space-week-will-it-define-the-departments-future-in-orbit\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2018.4.9-Profiles.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Welcome to the Pentagon\u2019s \u2018Space Week.\u2019 Will it define the department\u2019s future in orbit?<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">At a time when the Pentagon is heavily focused on space, this week stands out as a potential landmark in how the department will organize its approach to the war-fighting domain.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhen we look at the many stakeholders, there is real work to be done there to negotiate. So we thought about it as a multistep process where eventually there would be more alignment, but not in the first phase,\u201d Shanahan added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The NRO is one of the intelligence community\u2019s most secretive agencies. It runs and operates several classified overhead reconnaissance systems such as satellites. Because the NRO\u2019s budgets are classified, little information is publicly available about individual programs. However, intelligence leaders have said the agency makes up about half of the intelligence community\u2019s major acquisitions and has about 3,000 employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., followed up on Reed\u2019s question, asking whether Shanahan saw a need for NRO to fall under Space Force, to which Shanahan responded: \u201cThere is a need. It was an issue of timing. If we could do it all concurrently, that would be ideal. I don\u2019t think we can move that quickly, so, rather than delay, we said: \u2018This is what we can do immediately.&#8217; &#8220;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson noted that there is a \u201cdeep, organic connection\u201d between her service and the NRO, with about 40% of NRO staff coming from her service. But she sounded skeptical about rolling NRO under Space Force, saying that while \u201cdeepening that connection is important,\u201d strengthening their relationship &#8220;may not require an actual structural change in the organizational chart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And Gen. John Hyten, the head of U.S. Strategic Command, added that \u201cthere\u2019s no doubt the Space Force of the future will have to have a very strong relationship with the National Reconnaissance Office.&#8221; STRATCOM owes a report to Congress in August about how to better partner with the NRO, something he said he hopes to deliver ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After the hearing, Reed stopped short of saying he wanted to see the NRO integrated into any Space Force, but said he was making a larger point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis proposal doesn\u2019t represent a comprehensive integration of space assets since the NRO is another important part of it, and they have no intention of pulling that in,\u201d Reed said of the Trump administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reed said he and other lawmakers would have to consider the range of information presented and ultimately consider it as they draft this year&#8217;s defense policy bill, which is the likely legislative vehicle for any reorganization of military space assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For now, Reed signaled he favors an arrangement wherein the commander for space is in a dual-hat role, along the lines of the head of U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThat\u2019s an alternate model that might work better if you\u2019re really looking at a full integration of space assets,\u201d Reed said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The NRO could eventually join the 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