The NRO At Fifty

The National Reconnaissance Office is to the US intelligence community as aircraft carriers are to the US Navy. Without the NRO, the payloads that are absolutely crucial to the IC's mission never get there. Without the NRO, the United States is nearly a premodern military power, our appreciation of the strategic situation is as weak as it was before Pearl Harb or or during the era of the (non-existent) "missile gap". Yet while there are dozens of unofficial and official histories of the CIA, this official publication from 2011 is the only one in print about NRO. That makes this handsome hardbound edition an essential purchase for the library of anyone with a professional interest in space power or the military history of space. This document is a brief history of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) written by Dr. Bruce Berkowitz and Mr. Michael Suk. It provides an overview of the Center for the Study of National Reconnaissance (CSNR), an independent research body reporting to the NRO Deputy Director. The CSNR's main objective is to provide the NRO leadership with the necessary analytical framework and historical context to make effective policy and programmatic decisions. The document also mentions the contact information for the CSNR and provides details on how to obtain copies. Additionally, it includes a table of contents and a timeline of major events in NRO history.This annotated edition illustrates the capabilities of the AI Lab for Book-Lovers to add context and ease-of-use to manuscripts. It includes five types of abstracts, building from simplest to more complex: TLDR (one word), ELI5, TLDR (vanilla), Scientific Style, and Action Items; four essays to increase viewpoint diversity: Context in the Discourse, Formal Dissent; Red Team Critique; and MAGA Perspective; and Notable Passages and Nutshell Summaries for each page.