NRO Must “Demonstrate Effectiveness”

So said new National Reconnaissance Office boss Bruce Carlson, retired Air Force four-star who last head Air Force Materiel Command, according to a DOD Buzz report. Speaking in San Antonio at the Geospatial Intelligence Foundation symposium this week, Carlson noted there have been “very costly and very significant failures” with reconnaissance spacecraft, but he said NRO’s performance over the past 18 months indicates that “we are going to turn the corner and we are going to deliver on time and on cost.” Earlier speakers noted that the US is losing the space race, but at least one other expressed the same optimism that the Air Force and NRO would overcome the plague of cost and schedule problems. (Also read GEOINT blog report)