Contacting the reconnaissance agency
The Acquisition Research Center in Chantilly, Va., is the portal for business opportunities for acquisition across the intelligence community, including the National Reconnaissance Office. Its website is https://arc.westfields.net.
Lt. Col. Christopher Boring, the NRO’s representative at Wright-Patterson, can be reached at (937) 656-7611 or at christopher.boring@wpafb.af.mil.
The National Reconnaissance Office’s decision to establish a permanent presence on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base offers a potential new opportunity for companies hoping to start or expand business serving the base.
The 51-year-old reconnaissance agency, based in Chantilly, Va., is responsible for designing, building, launching, maintaining and operating the nation’s spy satellites to inform U.S. officials about the military and offensive capabilities of adversary countries.
The permanent, on-site association with Wright-Patterson, a hub of Air Force acquisition, design, testing and research, is a natural marriage for the reconnaissance agency and the Air Force, officials said. The agencies have long been partners in designing satellites, and the Air Force launches them and provides for their defense in orbit.
“The bottom line is this really enables a highly efficient acquisition process,” said Joe Zeis, a retired Air Force officer who is chief strategist for the Dayton Development Coalition, a supporter of Wright-Patterson and its programs. “That offers a lot of buying power and intellectual power to the U.S. government in having those operations here.”
Since September, Air Force Lt. Col. Christopher Boring has been assigned to Wright-Patterson as the National Reconnaissance Office’s field representative in the agency’s first-ever permanent representation on the base. He is housed in the Air Force Materiel Command’s headquarters.
His primary focus is on communicating with Wright-Patterson agencies about their needs and those of the reconnaissance office.
Included in those talks are training, education and design matters and monitoring performance of reconnaissance systems, Boring wrote in email to the Dayton Daily News.
The intent is to ensure that the reconnaissance agency’s products keep pace with the needs of users, Boring wrote.
Though the agency’s satellites keep watch on other countries around the clock, the agency itself doesn’t evaluate the gathered data, Keith Hall, a former NRO director, said during a Dayton appearance last week. Evaluating and interpreting the data falls to organizations including the National Air and Space Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson.
Having access to Boring gives Dayton region companies a direct opportunity to ask how they might serve the reconnaissance agency, said Scott Coale, a retired Air Force officer from Wright-Patterson who is president of DaytonDefense, the regional association of defense contracting companies. Boring’s presence also should improve collaboration between the Air Force and the reconnaissance agency, Coale said.
Lt. Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, former commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson, suggested having an NRO field office at the base. Bruce Carlson, a retired Air Force general and former AFMC commander who now heads the reconnaissance agency, made it happen.
The National Reconnaissance Office doesn’t disclose its annual budget. But, the government as a whole has said it spent $80.1 billion on intelligence gathering during the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2010. That amounted to 12 percent of the nation’s $664 billion defense budget.
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