Saturday, May 11, 2024
Saturday, May 11, 2024
The Defense Intelligence Agency recently published a new strategic plan outlining the way it will do its job over the next five years.
"The DIA 2012-2017 Strategy is to strengthen and unite the agency's core defense intelligence capabilities to best support warfighters and policymakers in an era of persistent international conflict and enduring U.S. fiscal challenges," the document states, adding: "The strategy's theme is One Mission - One Team - One Agency. One Mission, cleanly nested in all-source defense intelligence, is accomplished by One Team, operating as an integrated, agile, and results-oriented force within One Agency, performing as a critical member of the Defense Intelligence Enterprise and committed to excellence in defense of our Nation."
The agency plans to implement its strategy via four main principles, according to the document:
* Work together as one team within an operational environment that fosters trust, unity of effort, diversity, integration and transparency, adaptability and mental agility, and close proximity to the customers of DIA's output.
* Focus DIA on its mission-essential capabilities by pursuing efficiencies at every level, including centralized planning with decentralized implementation, aggressive and adaptive restructuring, and redirecting resources to priority mission areas.
* Grow stronger by leading or joining U.S. whole-of-government efforts to leverage interagency information, expertise, and capabilities, while strengthening and forging stronger partnerships with academia, the private sector, and international partners.
* Apply performance management to maximize individual, team, and organizational performance to ensure DIA services and products are timely and relevant to customer needs, and hold the workforce accountable for their actions and job performance based on measurable outcomes.
DIA plans to "fundamentally shift its intelligence operations mindset and business practices from focusing on the last war to preparing for the highly complex and uncertain future" in "tangible ways," according to the document. Further:
DIA's core mission resides in four intelligence competencies: all-source analysis; counterintelligence (CI); human intelligence (HUMINT), and measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT). Primarily focused on foreign military and defense-related matters, DIA will:
1. Provide strategic warning and integrated risk assessment.
2. Plan and direct defense intelligence activities for all-source analysis; collection management; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; HUMINT; CI; open source intelligence (OSINT); MASINT; technical collection; and international engagement.
3. Collect information through HUMINT, CI, OSINT, MASINT, and technical means.
4. Process and exploit information collected through HUMINT, CI, OSINT, MASINT, and technical means.
5. Produce all-source intelligence analysis from all available collection means.
6. Integrate and disseminate defense intelligence products and data.
The strategic plan acknowledges that "current and future adversaries will constantly adapt and seek new ways to challenge U.S. national security interests," and "calls for a more flexible, adaptive, and agile operational culture immersed in critical thinking. It further requires that DIA Officers thrive in an integrated and decentralized structure, embrace civilian-military integration and information sharing, be willing to accept risk, and foster proficiency to adapt operations based on a continuous assessment of the situation."