Defense Secretary Robert Gates has named the current principal deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office, Scott Large, to become the new NRO director. He would replace Donald Kerr who recently received Senate confirmation to become the second in command to the Director of National Intelligence. Prior to becoming the NRO principal deputy in April 2007, Large had served in the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.

