The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is a member of the United States Intelligence Community and an agency of the United States Department of Defense which designs,builds,launches,and operates the reconnaissance satellites of the U.S. federal government. It provides satellite intelligence to several government agencies,particularly signals intelligence (SIGINT) to the NSA,imagery intelligence (IMINT) to the NGA,and measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT) to the DIA. The NRO announced in 2023 that it plans within the following decade to quadruple the number of satellites it operates and increase the number of signals and images it delivers by a factor of ten.
Ashton Baldwin Carter was an American government official and academic who served as the 25th United States secretary of defense from February 2015 to January 2017. He later served as director of the Belfer Center for Science &International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School.
John Charles Rood is an American national security adviser and former government official who served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from January 2018 to February 2020. Before that,he was Senior Vice President of Lockheed Martin where he oversaw international business. He also served as vice president for Domestic Business Development at Lockheed Martin and he was a vice president at the Raytheon Company.
Evelyn Nicolette Farkas is an American national security advisor,author,and foreign policy analyst. She is the current executive director of the McCain Institute,a nonprofit focused on democracy,human rights,and character-driven leadership.
Avascent is a boutique management consulting firm serving the defense,aerospace,homeland security,logistics,transit,and financial industries. It was formed in 2007 after a management-led buyout of DFI Corporate Services from its parent,DFI International.
Michael Paul Pillsbury is a foreign policy strategist,author,and former public official in the United States. He is a senior fellow for China strategy at The Heritage Foundation and has been Director of the Center on Chinese Strategy at the Hudson Institute in Washington,D.C.,since 2014. Before Hudson,he held various postings in the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Senate. He has been called a "China-hawk",and an "architect" of Trump's policy towards China. In 2018,he was described by Donald Trump as the leading authority on the country.
Jamie Michael Morin is a former senior official in the United States Department of Defense. He was a private sector economist and research consultant before earning a Doctorate degree in political science from Yale University. He then served as a professional staff member on the United States Senate Committee on the Budget. Morin was Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation at the Department of Defense. Previously,he was Assistant Secretary of the Air Force,and served concurrently as Acting Under Secretary of the Air Force from 3 July 2012 to 28 April 2013. He joined The Aerospace Corporation in 2017 as executive director of the Center for Space Policy and Strategy and vice president of Defense Systems Operations.
John William Raymond is a retired United States Space Force general who served as the first chief of space operations from 2019 to 2022. The first guardian,he served as commander of the United States Space Command from 2019 to 2020.
David A. Deptula is the Dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Power Studies,and a senior scholar at the U.S. Air Force Academy's Center for Character and Leadership Development. He transitioned from the U.S. Air Force in 2010 at the rank of Lieutenant General after more than 34 years of service. Deptula was commissioned in 1974 as a distinguished graduate from The University of Virginia Air Force ROTC program,and remained to complete a master's degree in 1976. During his military career he took part in operations,planning,and joint warfighting at unit,major command,service headquarters and combatant command levels,and also served on two congressional commissions outlining America's future defense posture. He was a principal author of the original Air Force White Paper "Global Reach—Global Power." In the early 1990s he was instrumental in the formation and development of the concept later known as "effects-based operations," having successfully applied it in building the attack plans for the Operation Desert Storm air campaign. He has been cited as having "... fostered the most significant change in the conduct of aerial warfare since Billy Mitchell...Deptula’s framework influenced the successful air campaigns in Operations Allied Force,Iraqi Freedom,and Enduring Freedom. Today,joint targeting cells and Air Force doctrine reflect Deptula's theory of airpower and the changing nature of warfare." Deptula is one of 12 airmen singled out in Airpower Pioneers:From Billy Mitchell to Dave Deptula. He is also the subject of a more detailed review of his contributions to the development of airpower in America's Airman:David Deptula and the Airpower Moment.
David Lutz Norquist is an American financial management professional and former government official who served as the 34th United States deputy secretary of defense from 2019 to 2021. In May of 2022,Norquist was selected as the president and chief executive officer of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA).
Mira Radielovic Ricardel,is an American businesswoman and former federal political appointee.
Robert Story Karem is an American policy advisor and government official who served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs in the Department of Defense.
Mark Thomas Esper is an American politician and manufacturing executive who served as the 27th United States secretary of defense from 2019 to 2020. A member of the Republican Party,he had previously served as the 23rd U.S. secretary of the Army from November 2017 to July 2019.
Ellen M. Lord is an American businesswoman and government official who previously served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment in the Trump administration. She was previously the CEO of Textron Systems,a global aerospace,defense,security,and advanced technologies industrial conglomerate. In her position,she was the chief weapons purchaser for the United States,responsible for overseeing hundreds of billions of dollars of weapons and services acquisitions programs in the United States Department of Defense.
The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) was an unclassified but unpublicized investigatory effort funded by the United States Government to study unidentified flying objects (UFOs) or unexplained aerial phenomena (UAP). The program was first made public on December 16,2017. The program began in 2007,with funding of $22 million over the five years until the available appropriations were ended in 2012. The program began in the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.
Earl G. Matthews is an American government official and attorney who held senior positions within the Department of the Army and at the White House during the administration of President Donald Trump. Matthews was a member of Trump's Department of Defense transition team and was appointed as a Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense,James N. Mattis on January 20,2017. Matthews was subsequently appointed as the Principal Deputy General Counsel of the Army on June 21,2019. He served as Acting General Counsel of the Army from June 21,2017,until James E. McPherson was sworn in as General Counsel on January 2,2018.
David Dean Thompson is a retired United States Space Force general who served as the first vice chief of space operations from 2020 to 2023. He served as the vice commander of the Air Force Space Command from 2018 to 2020.
Kathleen Anne Holland Hicks is an American government official who has served as the United States deputy secretary of defense since 2021. She is the first Senate-confirmed woman in this role and is the highest ranking woman to have served in the United States Department of Defense. Hicks previously served as the principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy during the Obama administration. By 2020 Hicks was an academic and national security advisor working as a senior vice president and director of the international security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Frank A. Rose served as the Principal Deputy Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration in the Biden administration from August 2021 to April 2024. From 2018 to 2021,he was co-director of the Center for Security,Strategy,and Technology at the Brookings Institution. Previously Rose served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Verification,Compliance,and Implementation in the Obama administration from December 2014 to January 2017.
Christopher Paul Maier is an American government official who is the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict. He previously served as the Principal Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict.
