Program B

Program B was the CIA's element of the National Reconnaissance Program (NRP), the joint CIA–Air Force framework that governed US satellite reconnaissance from the early 1960s. It ran from approximately mid-1962 through December 31, 1992, when the NRP reorganized under the fully independent National Reconnaissance Office.

Structure and Mission

Program B was initially managed by Deputy Director (Plans) Richard M. Bissell Jr., and later by successive directors of the Office of Development and Engineering within the Directorate of Science and Technology. Its primary mission was SIGINT — signals intelligence collection via geosynchronous satellites. Flagship systems included Rhyolite, Aquacade, and Magnum. One significant electro-optical exception was the KH-11 KENNEN system, developed competitively against Program A's (Air Force) film-based IMINT systems.

The nominal Program B director was always the sitting DDS&T. From 3 July 1982 to 28 August 1989 that was Everett Hineman, though operational direction devolved to the Office of Development and Engineering director: Robert Kohler (April 1982–August 1985), then Julian Caballero.

Ground Station

Program B's principal ground control station was Pine Gap (Joint Defense Facility Pine Gap) near Alice Springs, Australia. The facility controlled geosynchronous SIGINT satellites and is considered the CIA's most important technical intelligence collection station in the world.

UAP Connection

The only documented link between Program B and UAP research is indirect: in a recorded phone call, retired Admiral Admiral Bobby Ray Inman named then-DDS&T Everett Hineman as the best person to ask about whether recovered UAP vehicles might be shared with outside researchers. Inman's statement was explicitly speculative. No declassified NRO or CIA document has linked Program B's mission tasking or analytical output to anomalous phenomena.