Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance

The Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (JFCC ISR) is a subordinate command of the United States Strategic Command, one of the nine Unified Combatant Commands under the United States Department of Defense (DOD) and co-located with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). In its relatively new status, it serves as the epicenter for planning, execution and assessment of the United States military's global Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance operations; a key enabler to achieving global situational awareness.

In support of USSTRATCOM’s global ISR mission, JFCC-ISR develops strategies and plans; integrates national, DoD, and international partner capabilities; and executes DoD ISR operations to satisfy combatant command and national operational and intelligence requirements.

Lieutenant General Michael D. Maples, USA is the Commander, JFCC-ISR, and also serves as the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in this dual-hatted position. The Commander, JFCC-ISR is responsible for coordinating global intelligence collection to address DoD worldwide operations and national intelligence requirements.

Established in March 2005 as a component of USSTRATCOM, and officially active on 4 November 2005, JFCC-ISR conducts planning to employ DoD ISR resources to meet national, departmental and combatant command requirements. In coordination with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), National Security Agency (NSA), National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), United States Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM), the military services and other mission partners, JFCC-ISR ensures the integration of DOD and national ISR efforts to satisfy combatant command and national operational and intelligence requirements. JFCC-ISR synchronizes the use of national, DoD, and allies’ ISR capabilities with employment of theater ISR resources and, when appropriate, with other collection activities, including human intelligence, measurement and signature intelligence, signals intelligence, imagery intelligence, and open source intelligence.

JFCC-ISR planning includes an assessment of potential risks and intelligence gaps associated with proposed options, and recommends actions to mitigate risks and gaps. When options involve use of theater ISR assets, JFCC-ISR communicates with theater and service operations and intelligence staffs to coordinate operations and to resolve competition for ISR resources. JFCC-ISR monitors the execution of planned ISR activities. JFCC-ISR generates an ISR Global Situation Awareness display and shares data from that display with appropriate entities. As data is collected and becomes usable, JFCC-ISR ensures its availability to the widest body of operators, planners and analytic organizations. JFCC-ISR evaluates collected data and recommends adjustments to plans or other actions to improve collection results.

JFCC-ISR plans, executes and integrates ISR activities in support of USSTRATCOM's strategic and global missions. The JFCC-ISR AOI extends worldwide, from underwater to space and overlays, but does not affect other areas of responsibilities assigned to combatant commands. This AOI includes the full spectrum of military needs, including transnational threats, Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Global War on Terror.

Missile and Space Intelligence Center

The Missile and Space Intelligence Center (MSIC) is an intelligence organization that is part of the Defense Intelligence Agency of the United States. MSIC is located at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. It is charged with producing scientific and technological intelligence on adversary surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), and ballistic missile systems with ranges less than 1000 km.

This intelligence includes characteristics, capabilities and limitations of foreign military systems, including data about related weapons, weapon system material, research, development, test, evaluation and production.

Defense Intelligence Agency - history

After World War II until the creation of DIA, the three Military Departments collected, produced and distributed their intelligence for individual use. This turned out to be too duplicative, costly, and ineffective as each department provided their estimates to the Secretary of Defense or to other governmental agencies.

The Defense Reorganization Act of 1958 wanted to correct these deficiencies by assigning responsibility for Unified and Specified Command intelligence support. However, the intelligence responsibilities remained unclear, the coordination was poor and the first results were short of national reliability and focus. As a result of this poor organization, President Eisenhower appointed the Joint Study Group in 1960 to find better ways for organizing the nation's military intelligence activities.

Acting on the recommendations of the Joint Study Group, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara advised the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) of his decision to establish the Defense Intelligence Agency in February 1961. He assigned them with developing a concept plan that would integrate all the military intelligence of the DoD. The JCS completed this assignment by July, and published DoD Directive 5105.21, "Defense Intelligence Agency" on 1 August, effective 1 October 1961.

DIA reported to the Secretary of Defense through the JCS. It was a union of Defense intelligence and counterintelligence activities, and did not add administrative layering within the Defense intelligence community. The Agency's mission was the continuous task of collecting, processing, evaluating, analyzing, integrating, producing, and disseminating military intelligence for the DoD. Other objectives included more efficiently allocating scarce intelligence resources, more effectively managing all DoD intelligence activities, and eliminating redundancies in facilities, organizations, and tasks.

During the summer of 1961, as Cold War tensions flared over the Berlin Wall, Air Force Lieutenant General Joseph Carroll, soon to become DIA's first director, planned and organized this new agency. It began operations with a handful of employees in borrowed office space on 1 October 1961.

Following DIA's establishment, the Services transferred intelligence functions and resources to it on a time-phased basis to avoid rapidly degrading the overall effectiveness of defense intelligence. Specifically, DoD assigned DIA the mission of collecting, processing, evaluating, analyzing, integrating, producing, and disseminating military intelligence for the Department.

A year after its formation, the Agency faced its first major intelligence test during the superpower confrontation that developed after Soviet missiles were discovered at bases in Cuba.

In late 1962, DIA established the Defense Intelligence School (now the National Defense Intelligence College), and on 1 January 1963, it activated a new Production Center. Several Service elements were merged to form this production facility, which occupied the "A" and "B" Building at Arlington Hall Station, Virginia.

The Agency also added an Automated Data Processing (ADP) Center on 19 February, a Dissemination Center on 31 March, and a Scientific and Technical Intelligence Directorate on 30 April 1963. DIA assumed the staff support functions of the J-2, Joint Staff, on 1 July 1963. Two years later, on 1 July 1965, DIA accepted responsibility for the Defense Attaché System--the last function the Services transferred to DIA.

During these early years of DIA's existence, Agency attempts to establish itself as DoD's central military intelligence organization met with continuing Service opposition. At the same time, the Vietnam War severely tested the fledgling Agency's ability to produce accurate, timely intelligence. In particular, the war increased defense intelligence's involvement in efforts to account for American service members missing or captured in Southeast Asia.

DIA analysts focused during the 1960's on: China's detonation of an atomic bomb and the launching of its cultural revolution; increasing unrest among African nations; and, fighting in Cyprus, and Kashmir; and the missile gap between the US and the Soviets. In the late 1960's, crises that tested intelligence responsiveness included: the Tet offensive in Vietnam; the Six-Day War between Egypt and Israel; continuing troubles in Africa, particularly Nigeria; North Korea's seizure of the USS Pueblo; and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Since 9/11 DIA has been active in nuclear proliferation intelligence collection and analysis with particular interests in North Korea and Iran as well as counter-terrorism. DIA was also involved with the intelligence build-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and was a subject in the Senate Report of Pre-war Intelligence on Iraq. The Defense Intelligence Agency has conflicted with the CIA in collection and analysis on the existence of WMDs in Iraq and has often represented the Pentagon in the CIA-DoD intelligence rivalry due to DIA's alleged clandestine HUMINT collection and often overlapping analysis products. Operational military intelligence has also been a focus, particularly in Iraq with insurgency threats and asymmetric warfare. Further, DIA is responsible for assessing the current and projected national security threats to the United States and presenting these assessments to the Senate Armed Services committee. Finally, DIA still actively maintains its responsibility for conventional strategic and operational military intelligence.

Defense Intelligence Agency - organization

DIA is led by a Director, typically a three-star military officer. The current director is Lieutenant General Michael D. Maples.

DIA is organized into these primary operational directorates:

Directorate for Human Intelligence (DH): Otherwise knows as Defense HUMINT Service, this directorate manages DIA's and the DoD's human source intelligence collection. This includes the Defense Attache System. Defense HUMINT reportedly controls the Strategic Support Branch, a unit that deploys teams of linguists, field analysts, case officers, interrogation experts, technical specialists, and special forces. It is speculated that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld created the SSB to bypass the limitations of the Central Intelligence Agency after 9/11.

Directorate for MASINT and Technical Collection (DT): Collects measurement and signature intelligence which is any intelligence that does not fit within the definitions of Signals Intelligence, Imagery Intelligence, and Human Intelligence. This often includes radar intelligence, acoustic intelligence, nuclear intelligence, and chemical and biological intelligence. DIA is the central intelligence agency for MASINT collection within the intelligence community.

Directorate for Analysis (DI): Analyzes and disseminates finalized intelligence products for the DIA from all sources as well as from partner Intelligence Community agencies. Analysts focus on the military issues that may arise from political or economic events in foreign countries and also analyze foreign military capabilities, transportation systems, weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), and missile systems and contribute to National Intelligence Estimates and to the President's Daily Brief. The Directorate of Analysis also manages the Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center and the Missile and Space Intelligence Center. Analysts serve DIA in all of the agency's facilities as well as in the field.

Directorate for Intelligence Joint Staff (J2): Advises and supports the Joint Chiefs of Staff with foreign military intelligence for defense policy and war planning.

Defense Joint Intelligence Operations Center (DJIOC): Fuses tactical, operational, and strategic intelligence assets and serves as the center for coordination of these assets in response to combatant command requirements.

DIA also runs the National Defense Intelligence College.

Defense Intelligence Agency - overview

The Defense Intelligence Agency, or DIA, is a major producer and manager of military intelligence for the United States Department of Defense. DIA, designated in 1986 as a Defense Department combat support and intelligence agency, was established in 1961 as a result of a decision by Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, under president John F. Kennedy . The Department of Defense created DIA with the publication of Directive 5105.21, "Defense Intelligence Agency" on 1 August, effective 1 October 1961. DIA was preceded by the Counter Intelligence Corps.

Approximately 8,000 men and women work for DIA worldwide (about 30% are military personnel and about 70% are civilians). The exact numbers and specific budget information are not publicly released due to security considerations. DIA has major operational activities at the Pentagon, the Defense Intelligence Analysis Center (DIAC), Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., the Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center (AFMIC) in Fort Detrick, Maryland, and the Missile and Space Intelligence Center (MSIC) in Huntsville, Alabama. DIA is a member of the United States Intelligence Community, reporting to the Director of National Intelligence. The activities of DIA are often compared to Russia's GRU, the UK's Defence Intelligence Staff, and Israel's Aman (IDF).

DIA's mission is to provide timely and objective military intelligence to warfighters, policymakers, and force planners. It is considered to be a member of the Intelligence Community. The director of DIA is the main adviser to the United States Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on matters related to military intelligence. Under the support of the Military Intelligence Board, DIA unifies the Defense Intelligence Community on major issues such as the number of deployed forces, assessments, policy, and resources. To help weapon systems planners and the Defense community, DIA plays a major role in providing intelligence on foreign weapon systems.

Organization

History

Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance

Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center

The Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center (AFMIC), based in Fort Detrick, Maryland, is an agency within the United States Department of Defense (DoD) within the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA); its mission is to track and assess the full range of global health issues for the DoD.

AFMIC's mission, always critical to protecting the health of deployed forces, has grown even more important recently with support to Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom and the global war on terrorism. At the same time, the center is increasing its use of new technologies to transform its delivery of timely, forward-leaning, customer-focused medical intelligence.

As part of the DIA, this tri-service organization produces finished, all-source medical intelligence assessments, forecasts and databases on foreign military and civilian health care capabilities and trends, worldwide infectious disease risks, global environmental health risks, and militarily significant life science issues, to include biotechnology and nuclear, biological and chemical medical defense advancements.

AFMIC is the only organization in the world with this comprehensive medical intelligence mission. As such, it has a diverse customer base, from operational and tactical commanders, preventive medicine personnel, and medical planners and researchers to the policymakers in the DoD, the White House staff and other federal agencies.

The current (2005) director is Army Colonel James E. Gordon, MS.

History and organization

Since January 1992, AFMIC has been a DIA field production activity. However, AFMIC traces its origins to ad hoc medical intelligence cells established under the Surgeon General of the United States Army during World War II.

Initially, the Army surgeon general established medical intelligence to support planning for the administration of military governments in U.S. Army occupied territories occupied by providing detailed guides for civil public health and sanitation conditions. As the prospect of the United States entering World War II increased, the need for a full-time staff of medical intelligence analysts became apparent. During the war, medical intelligence products were part of formal war planning with the incorporation of health and sanitary data into War Department Strategic Surveys.

In 1963, DIA absorbed medical intelligence as a division in its production branch. During this period, the medical intelligence division underwent several evolutions in size, structure and specific function. In the early 1970s, the division became victim of DoD downsizing initiatives in the post-Vietnam era. Recognizing its importance, the Army surgeon general again took sole responsibility for the medical intelligence function in the form of the United States Army Medical Intelligence and Information Agency (USAMIIA). USAMIIA was renamed the Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center in 1982 when it became a tri-service organization. Congress mandated the permanent transfer of AFMIC to DIA in 1992 under the DoD Authorization Act.

AFMIC is organized into a support division and two substantive divisions—the Epidemiology and Environmental Health Division and the Medical Capabilities Division. Each substantive division is made up of two teams, the duties of which include:

Environmental Health

• Identify and assess environmental risks that can degrade force health or effectiveness including chemical and microbial contamination of the environment, toxic industrial, chemical and radiation accidents, and environmental terrorism/warfare.
• Assess the impact of foreign environmental health issues and trends on environmental security and national policy.

Epidemiology

• Identify, assess, and report on infectious disease risks that can degrade mission effectiveness of deployed forces and/or cause long-term health implications.
• Alert operational and policy customers to foreign disease outbreaks that have implications for national security and policy formulation, including homeland defense and deliberately introduced versus naturally occurring disease outbreaks.

Life Sciences and Biotechnology

• Assess foreign basic and applied biomedical and biotechnological developments of military medical importance.
• Assess foreign civilian and military pharmaceutical industry capabilities.
• Assess foreign scientific and technological medical advances for defense against nuclear, biological and chemical warfare.
• Prevent technological surprise.
• Prevent proliferation of dual-use equipment and knowledge.

Medical Capabilities

• Assess foreign military and civilian medical capabilities, including treatment facilities, medical personnel, emergency and disaster response, logistics, and medical/pharmaceutical industries.
• Maintain and update an integrated data base on all medical treatment, training, pharmaceutical, and research and production facilities.