For example, information-gathering tools, such as reconnaissance satellites and the associated support systems, require substantial and sustained financial commitments.
The replacement of reconnaissance satellites was delayed until it became a crisis.
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For instance, one reason Washington is often surprised when countries like Pakistan test nuclear weapons is that other governments have a good idea what times of the day they are within range of U.S. photo-reconnaissance satellites, and so they conduct sensitive operations while the satellites are out of range.
My favorite example of this occurred a decade ago, when Boeing convinced the intelligence community that it could build the next generation of photo-reconnaissance spy satellites better than 40-year incumbent Lockheed Martin could.
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Or perhaps I should say he nearly wrecked the national-security space program, since funding for the imaging reconnaissance and eavesdropping satellites operated by the intelligence community was also hidden in the Pentagon budget.
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What few outsiders realize, though, is that since that time it has led the military community in combining reconnaissance from spy satellites, airborne sensors and ground collectors so that precise targeting can occur in a timely fashion even when adversaries like terrorists are on the move.
The director of the National Reconnaissance Office that develops spy satellites recently disclosed that all of his programs are on track, which is something that has not been the case for a long time.
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By contrast, low earth orbiting satellites of the type used for most U.S. reconnaissance functions are extremely susceptible to a variety of techniques designed to degrade their performance or destroy them.
Satellites are used for communication, weather forecasting, navigation, research and reconnaissance.
As is the case with much severe weather, we simply see more than we did prior to satellites and (in the case of hurricanes) long-range aircraft reconnaissance.
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The SR-71 has proven its value as a complementary system to U.S. space-based reconnaissance assets during the prolonged period from 1985 to 1987 when the United States was unable to place new satellites in orbit.
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