Dayton Daily News April 30, 2012

Wright-Patt intel unit vital to national security

By Barrie Barber

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE — When a ballistic missile launches in Iran, North Korea or anywhere else around the globe, National Air and Space Intelligence Center analysts at Wright-Patterson have likely advised the president and Pentagon leaders of a potential threat.

The military command, with a $300 million yearly budget, has 3,100 military and civilian employees at the base who are the eyes and ears of senior national leaders who make foreign policy and national security decisions.

“Most of the information that they would be using to make their assessments would be coming from Wright-Patt,” said John Pike, director of globalsecurity.org in Alexandria, Va., “This is the place that keeps track of those missile capabilities.”

Sen. Ron Portman, R-Ohio, and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said NASIC has a “vital role” in determining the capability of those threats.

“The threats posed by ballistic missiles from states like Iran and North Korea are significant and constantly evolving,” he said in an email to the Dayton Daily News.

“Our understanding of these threats drives many strategic decisions as well as investments in our own military capabilities.”

The Dayton Daily News received a rare, inside look of the operation in a tour of selected areas.

The secretive agency has tightly controlled access and extensive security measures, such as rotating flashing lights activated when someone outside the agency enters a lobby area where employees might be talking about classified matters. Visitors are barred from bringing in cell phones, cameras or any recording device.

The center’s expertise spans air, space and cyber threats facing the nation and its allies. Using data from the nation’s intelligence gathering network, for instance, NASIC determines how far, how high and how a country might use a cruise or ballistic missile.

“When it comes to the analysis of these global ballistic systems there’s plenty for us to look at to stay busy all the time,” said James Lunsford, a NASIC spokesman.

Consider the possibilities this month alone: North Korea tried but failed to launch a rocket the secretive state declared would hurtle a satellite to orbit, but observers contended was a ballistic missile test. Within days, South Korea unveiled a cruise missile capable of striking its northern neighbor.

India launched a long-range ballistic missile as neighboring China’s ever-growing military rattles the Asia-Pacific region. Pakistan followed days later with a ballistic missile launch capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, news reports said.

Intelligence analysts, meanwhile, keep a close eye on Iran’s nuclear-tipped missile ambitions in the Middle East. In a 2009 threat assessment, the latest publicly released, NASIC concluded Iran could develop a missile that could reach the United States by 2015.

“In general terms, what we’re looking for is the overall technical capability of a system,” Lunsford said. “How far, how high it might fly and how a country might employ that system.”

NASIC’s assignments could range from dismantling a MiG fighter at Wright-Patterson to determine its capabilities, to giving American military personnel in Afghanistan threat assessments of where they are operating, Lunsford said.

At the Springfield Air National Guard Base, the 178th Fighter Wing has nearly 300 Air Guardsmen who support NASIC’s role, although possible personnel cuts could lower that number by about 40, said Col. Greg Schnulo, wing commander. NASIC has several Guard or reserve groups assigned to it.

“It’s an Air Force initiative to take Air National Guard resources and help to augment NASIC in their mission,” Schnulo said.

The Guardsmen are skilled in analysis of imagery, electronic systems and foreign equipment, he said.

Unlike active-duty counterparts who frequently change duty locations every few years, reservists tend to stay in uniform with the same unit much longer at less cost, he said.

“We can bring an expertise and continuity to NASIC they otherwise would be lacking,” he said.