USE OF INTELLIGENCE SATELLITE RESOURCES FOR NON-INTELLIGENCE APPLICATIONS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: NGA Records (Formerly NIMA)
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80T01137A000300040009-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 25, 2010
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: December 7, 1973
• Content Type: MEMO

 SECRET
7 DEC 197
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director, NPI
SUBJECT Use of Intelligence Satellite Resources
for Non-Intelligence Applications
I. Introduction: The purpose of this paper is to present
the background and current environment facing the intel-
ligence community, especially NPIC, with respect to the
increased use of reconnaissance satellite resources for
non-intelligence requirements. These requirements have
been termed "peaceful uses" and cover a multitude of
applications which fall into four broad categories:
a. General intelligence (related to
targetting).
b. Scientific - volcanism-seismic
disturbances and glacier movements.
c. Economic - mineral resources
exploration, disaster relief, crop analysis
d. Enforcement - narcotic crops, pollution
sources.
The distinction between intelligence and "peaceful
uses" requirements in the past has been quite clear.
However, the present changes in international conditions
are changing some of the peaceful uses categories into
intelligence requirements also. This will have continual
managerial effect on NPIC and other organizations as the
use of the reconnaissance satellite imagery is expanded
and broadened to include new technology.
CLASSIFIED By
Ex2m?1 1rm General
Doola~+lf6:a:ica 8::rwtala of E.D. 11662,
Enmpiien Ontr,:ory 58(:), (3)
UECCLAS'.:IFIC+TION DATE
1AIPOSSIOLE TO DETERMINE
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)?f. Changing Imagery Exploitation Environment and Problems
of Adaptation: In many respects the problems being faced
by the intelligence community today, caused by the desire
of the civil agencies to expand the application of satellite
imagery are similar to those faced by the military and the
civil agencies in the twenties and thirties when the air-
plane and aerial photography started to come of age. The
military controlled most of the airplanes and all of the
cameras. This led to many of the conflicts which are
present today such as more requirements than capability.
In fact, if one looks at the history of aerial mapping
and reconnaissance starting in 1918, the identical con-
flicts between geometry and resolution were present. Also,
the seeds of some of the prohibitions imposed on the intel-
ligence community were planted then. For example, thy
military air services were used for delivery of the U.S.
mails and for. spotting bootleg stills. These practices
amongst others have resulted in legislation which prohibited
the military using resources at their command for domestic
uses which could be done under contract by private industry
or by the civil agencies with their own aircraft.
While many of the problems to be faced today are
parallel to those faced thirty to forty years ago, today's
problems are more restrictive in that legislation is more
definitive or precedents which have been well established
must be changed.
The National Security Act of 1947 specifically
prohibits CIA from police, subpoena, law-enforcement powers,
or internal security functions. However, decisions have
been made to use intelligence resources for a variety of
other domestic uses, although both U.S. public and private
sectors are most sensitive, as all know. In general. intel-
legs ima a or ome~t,, use. but inte i ence imaerv PeAjg;tation
this s p
sources are not. T ere is some precedent to
in i y resources have been used in this manner in
the past. Natural disasters have been photographed by
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 SUBJECT: Use of Intelligence Satellite Resources for
Non-Intelligence Applications
military aircraft since the inception of these programs.
Also aerial photography for domestic mapping was flown
by military aircraft until a commercial capability was
developed in the 1940's.
In addition to the tendency to approach the develop-
ment of remote sensing by satellites in a parallel manner
as was employed for aircraft, the following factors also
dictate this expanded non-intelligence use of the imagery
intelligence reconnaissance satellites.
1. The NRP satellites are the only source
of continuous operational space imagery. The
NASA mission is research only and none of their
programs, with the possible exception of the
shuttle,are designed to lead to operational
systems.
2. The quality of the NRP data far exceeds
that from the NASA systems.
3. The expense of satellite operations is
of such magnitude that the nation cannot afford
duplicative systems for both civil and intel-
ligence applications.
The pressures which tend to limit the use of space
platforms for open earth observation are again a combina-
tion of the old and the new. Precedent developed during
the era of the airplane recognized nations' rights to
control data on their own resources by reason of agreed
application of sovereignty to their airspace. Bilateral
and collective agreements established the third nation
concept and in almost all cases adhere to the practice of
furnishing the "host" nation a copy of the collected data
as a portion of the price for being allowed to collect
data. For example, all of the U.S. bilateral mapping
agreements contain this provision. They also state we
will not make the photography or maps available to a
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third country without the express approval of the host
country. Current civil practice, under NASA leadership,
differs from this precedent in that it provides aerial and
space photography to any interested customer either
foreign or U.S. national.
The other constraints which are not based on
prejudice or international law practices are:
1. Capability of the NRP systems to meet
the broadening requirements of the civil agencies
while continuing to meet the requirements of the
intelligence community.
2. The impact of civil applications on the
security of the National Reconnaissance Program.
III. Efforts to Cope with Problems and Changing Environ-
ment: Studies begun in by the corps of Engineers
indicated that large benefits could accrue from the
application of T-KH photography to civil purposes. These
studies concerning disaster relief, dam site locations,
highway alignments, airport site selections, and flood
control were briefed to the Office of Science and Tech-
nology (OST), Department of State (AID), Department of
Agriculture, Department of Interior (USGS), Office of
Emergency Preparedness, Department of Commerce (NOAA),
and CIA. As a result of these briefings, an interagency
task force was set up. It completed a study and an
agreement was signed in 1967 between the President's
Science Advisor and the Director of Central Intelligence
establishing the "ARGO" Steering Committee as the mechanism
to further these studies and secure the required photo-
graphic coverage.
The organizational aspect of ARGO was a committee,
chaired by OST, and made up of the DCI's representative
and representatives of Interior, NASA, Agriculture,
Commerce (NOAA), Corps of Engineers (USA), State/AID, and
Office of Emergency Preparedness (OEP). The term "ARGO"
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was adopted back in 1967 by the individuals involved to
cover their examination of applications of the more
sophisticated intelligence remote sensing systems to
"peaceful uses" of the "old line" agencies.
During its approximately five-year life, ARGO saw
the formation by Interior of space and facilities at
Reston - secured for intelligence imagery and made ready
for use by all "old-line" agencies to begin applications
of intelligence imagery. Imagery was used to help build
a data base at an emergency relocation site for a Govern-
ment control center (under OEP auspices). NPIC provided
technical and procedural counsel to ARGO on exploitation
matters and assisted Agriculture and others on a spot
basis. When the time cam for consolidation of "old-line"
requirements ARGO members could not get
their requirements together and the ARGO effort eventually
folded. Whatever the reason - whether the agencies
involved pinned their hopes on NASA's ERTS-A and Skylab
programs (unclassified, but mainly poorer resolutions) as
opposed to the harder-to-use higher resolution classified
intelligence materials is somewhat beside the point for
this paper.
In any event, ARGO's needs continued - the engineers
and EPA have asked respectively for help from intelligence
imagery systems regarding flood threats and water pollution,
and these two have been assisted by limited NPIC services.
This was the last case to pass through the now virtually
fully dormant ARGO.
Since the announced demise of OST and transfer of its
Presidential Science Advisor role to NSF in January 1973,
there have been efforts to make some new plans to replace
the ARGO Steering Committee as the intelligence community
interface with the old-line agencies in the remote sensing
field. The pollution, flood, and other earlier ARGO
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recommended a new intelligence interface with civilian
mappers, including requirements procedures, to the Director,
OMB, claiming major savings. This has now been cleared by
0MB for release to departments and agencies for comment.
Discussions have been held between representa ives of the
DCI 0 and Henry Kissinger's office
to interface NRO and an existing non-intelligence inter-
agency committee on remote sensing systems plus a COMIREX
subcommittee, or, better yet, a non-intelligence panel to
be chaired by Interior on "peaceful uses" requirements for
collection by intelligence systems - intelligence personnel
working with the latter committee would not be responsible
for establishing the "peaceful uses" requirements.
Reportedly, major U.S. companies involved in denied area
oil and gas deals have now approached the USG for classified
imagery developed information, thus conceivably adding to
civil applications demand.
For several years an interagency committee on NSAM
156, chaired by State (Undersecretary for Political Affairs),
has examined the question of declassification of the fact
of the intelligence satellite operation and related polit-
ical questions. To date NSAM 156 has not caused a change
and the classification and control remains in effect.
Currently, USIB has approved certain proposals, which in
turn, if approved by the President, should enlarge the
military and domestic non-intelligence applications effort
due to decontrolling and lesser classifications.
In addition to the USIB action, a recent letter from
the Administrator of NASA to Secretary Schultz also requests
changes to the national policy involving earth observation
from space. NASA is suggesting that they be assigned the
lead in deriving a new space policy, and that they be given
responsibility for an operational program involving both
collection and exploitation of remote sensed data to solve
certain economic problems. They suggest a pilot study of
"a global food crop(s) "to start this effort. This has
implications for role-playing in economic intelligence.
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An interagency committee, chaired by State and set up
under NSSM 72 has been studying the question of USG policy
options on world-wide remote sensing by ERTS-A and follow-
on systems. Legal questions, national and international,
are involved. Questions of economic advantages and
disadvantages for the U.S. and other nations have been
contracted out for cost/benefit examination to private
industry. Matters of dissemination of earth resources
data and possible collection organizations are being
examined in connection with the economic advantage/
disadvantage matters and all these are related to the
matter of sustaining the U.S. position of "right-to-observe."
At the present time, Interior, State, and NSC are attempting
to define the terms of reference for the continuance of
this effort.
ERTS-A and Skylab systems have already affected intel-
ligence agencies, Defense and State. NPIC performed eval-
uations of ERTS-A film in its earliest days in terms of
quality and intelligence value. COMIREX has a review
group function for Skylab to which NPIC has contributed.
This group has been determining the probability of
observing both foreign intelligence targets and U.S.
targets in Skylab's unclassified imagery. This is done
in connection with pre-mission orbit select/camera opera-
tions and in interpretation of imagery received. Recom-
mendations are made by the group which contacts its parent
agencies regarding positions to be taken on political risk,
U.S. military information, security, etc. associated with
subsequent dissemination of film. As stated elsewhere in
this paper, these two systems raise many questions bearing
upon the USG position of "right to observe."
As world conditions change, items which a few years
ago were considered primarily as "peaceful uses" are now
also of concern to the intelligence community. This is
exemplified by the Soviet wheat study which is currently
underway to determine the utility of intelligence and
ERTS imagery to assist in forecasting Soviet wheat crops
and current assessment of harvest results. Combining
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metrology, KH-imagery, and ERTS IR imagery for this pur-
pose is an ad hoc group of ORD, OER, and NPIC working with
an ORD contractor on a 6-7 month contract.
Domestic and Canadian ground truth is being obtained on
winter and spring wheat crops for purposes of comparison
to the Soviet crops. The OER-ORD petroleum studies are
also indicative of this change in intelligence requirements.
For the past few years there has been an increased
effort by the USG against a rising drug traffic and use.
Intelligence roles have increased considerably. NPIC has
been participating in studies to determine the utility of
remote sensing of poppy and marijuana fields.
NPIC has established a photo interpreter branch to
determine new applications of imagery. The primary
function here is to support NPIC in its intelligence role -
in line with priorities. However, it would seem that in
its freedom to explore new uses for imagery, there could
well be some new applications which would assist the non-
intelligence agencies of Government. These would be
appropriate for transfer under an ARGO-type arrangement or
as a straight intelligence support matter.
IV. NPIC Role in Chan in Environment: NPIC's role in all
of the ARGO e ort was a cautious one -- limited to providing
technical and procedural assistance to the non-intelligence
community in response to specific requests by the Steering
Committee and in support of the DCI representative to ARGO.
At the same time great care was exercised by NPIC to avoid
providing "too much" help so that these agencies would not
"bother" to help themselves. Also, NPIC took care not to
get its intelligence people in a line capacity for domestic
functions - for example, NPIC refused to commit PI support
in national domestic emergencies due to natural disasters
while at the same time permitting limited technical non-
interpretive assistance when necessary in connection with
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classified film. Our technology was made available to
ARGO along with many of our procedures to assist the civil
agencies planning for the use of ERTS-A. The NPIC role
with respect to new applications must evolve within the
frame work of intelligence interests. However, this in
itself may be a considerable change as indicated by the
following passages from the DCI's Annual Report on
coordination of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Effort:
a. "Responsibility for U.S. foreign economic
policy is quite decentralized and most of the key
consumers of foreign economic intelligence are out-
side the intelligence community as usually defined.
To improve guidance in this field, I have recom-
mended that a representative of the Washington
economic community be added to the NSCIC, and that
appropriate problems of economic intelligence be
placed on the agenda of the NSCIC Working Group by
the Executive Director of the President's Council
on Economic Policy, who is also chairman of the
newly-created Requirements Advisory Board."
b. "The USIB Economic Intelligence Committee
(EIC) took the lead early in the year in setting up
an improved mechanism for the consolidation and
coordination of the foreign intelligence needs of
all agencies concerned with U.S. economic policies.
A new publication, the Economic Alert List is now
published every four months on each o the seven
major regions of the world and is disseminated to
all economic offices in the field (encompassing
State, Treasury, Commerce, Agriculture and AID) as
well as to intelligence collectors. The EAL's,
which transmit the information needs of Washington
economic anal sts, had their starting point in the
economic affas section of CIA's Current Intel-
ligence Repor ing List (CIRL). Economic require-
ments have been modified where appropriate in both
the IPC List of the USIB Interagency Clandestine
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Priorities Committee and the Intelligence Guidance
for COMINT Pro r_g amming (IGCP) developed by the
ommittttoee..n addition, a "Coordinated
Statement of Priorities on Economic, Financial and
Commercial Intelligence Requirements Worldwide of
the Washington Intelligence Community" was developed
by an EIC subcommittee and sent to all diplomatic
and consular posts and missions by the Department of
State. Twenty-one different components of the
Washington economic community coordinated this
statement, which will be updated annually."
The photo interpretation techniques developed to
support intelligence requirements in the economic field
will be equally applicable to domestic problems and hence
should be passed to those organizations with responsibility
for the domestic programs. The source of photography for
domestic programs may or may not be from intelligence
resources. Also, the Center needs to become more familiar
with techniques being employed by commercial and other
Government organizations to exploit imagery to solve prob-
lems in fields such as geology, agriculture and industrial
capability since these would be applicable to the foreign
intelligence requirements.
While the restrictions on the intelligence community
in the area of domestic applications and the limits on
collection capability indicates a cautious approach to
peaceful applications, the increased intelligence interest
in economic issues will require the NPIC to take consider-
able initiative if we are to be in a position to respond
rapidly to new intelligence requirements which are
developing.
IV. Summary and Conclusions: The experience gained over
the past forty years and Me- use of aerial photography are
applicable to the use of satellite imagery. A major
advantage of the satellite imagery is the synoptic view
which facilitates the study of the "forest" without being
blinded by the "trees."
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To many, including OMB, the expanded use of the
reconnaissance imagery represents a significant cost
savings. The rationale for this is twofold. First,
since the satellite is in operation for intelligence
purposes, it doesn't cost "any" more to collect imagery
for the other uses and second, the cost of a comparable
civil program just to separate those activities from the
intelligence operation is prohibitive. A "one-truck,
two-payload" approach is recommended as a cost-saver.
The DCI has expressed two particular areas of concern
with respect to civil applications of satellite imagery.
Security of the NRP and protection of the technology of
the NRP must be maintained. Therefore, the ability of
the NRP to meet the broadened requirements of the civil
agencies while continuing to fulfill the requirements of
the intelligence community with satellites must be care-
fully considered.
The role of the NPIC in the "peaceful uses" and
"economic" areas should be to develop the capability to
exploit imagery for all purposes especially those which
have been or most probably will be identified by Mr.
Colby as Key Intelligence Questions. NPIC should also
make these techniques known to cleared personnel in the
civil agencies which have responsibility for similar
domestic or foreign "non-intelligence" programs.
Lt. Colonel,
Deputy Chief
Distribution:
Copy 1 - NPIC/ODIR
2$3 - NPIC/PS
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