Intelligence analysis
Analysing secret intelligence
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| August 2024 | LtGen Melvin G. Carter becomes Director of Marine Corps Intelligence, serving from August 2024 to present. |
| April 2024 |
Sentient
At the 39th Space Symposium, NRO's principal deputy director Troy Meink discussed plans to diversify satellite fleet, increase satellite assets in unique orbits, and expand AI-based data ingestion using Sentient-type systems and ground systems.
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| November 29 2023 |
Department of National Security
Loreto Gutiérrez Hurtado (military) assumes the role of Director, succeeding Miguel Ángel Ballesteros
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| June 2023 | LtGen Matthew Glavy becomes Director of Marine Corps Intelligence, serving until July 2024. |
| 2022 |
Cognitive bias
ISO/IEC published Technical Report TR 24368 which further refined and referenced the definition of cognitive bias from the previous year's report.
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| June 2022 |
Sentient
NRO declassified and released two redacted reports on Sentient activities related to a UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) sighting of a 'tic tac' shape, revealing the program's involvement with the Department of Defense's Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force.
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| June 2022 |
Sentient
The National Reconnaissance Office declassified and released two redacted reports on Sentient's activities related to tracking and researching unidentified aerial phenomena, including a sighting of a 'tic tac' shaped object.
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| 2021 |
Sentient
United States Army Captain Anjanay Kumar proposed that Sentient would be a potential target in a hypothetical conflict between the United States and China over Taiwan.
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| 2021 |
Sentient
NRO emails disclose the involvement of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) with the Sentient program, which later transitioned to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO).
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| 2021 |
Cognitive bias
ISO/IEC published Technical Report TR 24027 providing a formal definition of cognitive bias, describing it as a bias that occurs when humans are processing and interpreting information.
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| 2019 |
Sentient
NRO documents from 2012 describing the Sentient program are declassified.
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| June 19 2018 |
Department of National Security
Miguel Ángel Ballesteros, a military officer, becomes Director of the Department of National Security, replacing Cristina Ysasi-Ysasmendi.
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| January 27 2018 |
Department of National Security
Cristina Ysasi-Ysasmendi, a civil servant, succeeds Alfonso de Senillosa as Director of the Department of National Security.
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| 2017 |
Sentient
Robert Cardillo, former Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, described Sentient as a joint research and development effort with NRO to experiment with automated data processing and intelligence inference.
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| 2016 |
Sentient
The Rand Corporation summarized a major benefit of the Sentient system, highlighting its potential to allow intelligence analysts to focus on strategic analysis while automation handles data collection details.
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| 2016 |
Sentient
Betty J. Sapp discussed the application of cubesat systems for NRO work, which were tested as part of the Sentient program.
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| 2015 |
Sentient
Sentient and National Overhead Systems Future Ground Architecture program had an annual budget of $238,000,000, with Air Force colonel Thomas Nix serving as the technical lead and Operations Branch Chief.
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| 2015 |
Cognitive bias
Carey K. Morewedge and colleagues conducted research demonstrating that one-shot training interventions, such as educational videos and debiasing games, could significantly reduce participants' commission of six cognitive biases, with effects lasting immediately and up to 3 months later.
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| January 2 2015 | The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) issued Intelligence Community Directive (ICD) 203, establishing Intelligence Community (IC) Analytic Standards to govern the production and evaluation of analytic products, emphasizing the responsibility of intelligence analysts to maintain excellence, integrity, and rigor in their analytical work. |
| 2014 |
Sentient
First public disclosure of Sentient as a full program occurs in the United States Naval Research Laboratory's NRL Review.
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| 2013 |
Sentient
Sentient program entered initial development phase at the National Reconnaissance Office.
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| 2013 |
Sentient
Sentient program enters initial development phase, with NRO documents indicating ongoing R&D efforts.
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| 2013 |
Sentient
At the GEOINT Symposium, Betty J. Sapp discussed Sentient's potential to make the National Reconnaissance Office more responsive and predictive in aiming spaceborne assets.
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| 2013 | Jones and Silberzahn published 'Constructing Cassandra: Reframing Intelligence Failure at the CIA, 1947–2001', a volume examining intelligence analysis, hypotheses formation, and organizational biases in intelligence work from 1947 to 2001. |
| July 2013 | Brigadier General Michael Groen becomes Director of Marine Corps Intelligence, serving until June 2016. |
| 2012 |
Sentient
Official NRO documents describe Sentient as an ongoing Research and Development (R&D) program managed by the National Reconnaissance Office.
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| 2012 |
Cognitive bias
A Psychological Bulletin article was published, demonstrating that noisy information processing in memory can produce at least eight seemingly unrelated cognitive biases, including regressive conservatism, illusory correlations, and overconfidence.
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| July 23 2012 |
Department of National Security
Alfonso de Senillosa begins his tenure as Director of the Department of National Security
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| July 20 2012 |
Department of National Security
The Department of National Security (DSN) was officially created through Royal Decree 1119/2012, establishing it as an advisory staff department within the Spanish Prime Minister's Office to support national security policy leadership.
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| 2010 |
Sentient
Continued development and documentation of the Sentient program by the National Reconnaissance Office and its Advanced Systems and Technology Directorate.
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| 2010 |
Sentient
The NRO publicly requests information (RFI) for white papers on Sentient, focusing on user interaction technology, computing self-awareness, cognitive processing, and automated system processing.
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This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles Sentient (intelligence analysis system), Department of National Security (Spain), Marine Corps Intelligence, Intelligence analysis & Cognitive bias, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.