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Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 23. Mars 2005 / Time Line March 23, 2005
Version 3.503/23/2005
DoD Proposes Program to Remodel Defense Intelligence
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, March 23, 2005 - The Defense Department has proposed a
program to remodel the defense intelligence capabilities, senior
DoD officials said here today.
The changes, they said, will mirror what experience in Afghanistan
and Iraq has shown works.
Speaking on background, officials said the intelligence system was
well suited to finding out the order of battle for Soviet forces
poised on the old East German border, but not well suited to
determining the objectives, methods and operations of an amorphous
group such as al Qaeda.
The remodeling, they said, intends to eliminate barriers for the
free flow of intelligence within the department to those who use
it.
The effort started about a year ago, officials said, and entails
only intelligence functions within DoD. The department wants to
align intelligence functions with all the other changes under way
in the department as part of the transformation efforts.
This means being able to move the data quickly both horizontally
and vertically, and to make sure the people who are searching for
data can access it no matter where they are in the system,
officials explained. This, they said, will enable analysts to
ensure they see all information without depending solely on what
comes through their chain of command.
The analysts, in turn, will have the ability to request information
from the collectors, officials explained. Once analysts look
through the information available, they can indicate holes in the
coverage and request they be filled. The collector, officials
added, should be in a position to find out the information.
All of this must be put at the service of the people who are doing
the fighting, officials said.
Some changes have already been made, the officials said. DoD
recently consolidated responsibility for intelligence, surveillance
and reconnaissance components under U.S. Strategic Command.
Marine Gen. James E. Cartwright, the STRATCOM commander, in turn
made the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency the Joint
Force Component Commander for ISR. The director, who has
responsibility for DoD intelligence collection, is also the DoD
point of contact for requests from the CIA.
The remodeling also gives combatant commanders a new organizational
structure to use: The Joint Intelligence and Operations Center.
"The idea is to bring together in one place the collectors (and)
the analysts and bring them in contact with (the commander's)
operating forces so he has the ability to do the quick turn," one
official said. "He has the ability to get the information in, get
it analyzed, ask for more if needed, get it transmitted to his
operational people, measure the effects on the objective, bring
that information back and cycle it again and again."
Finally, DoD has asked the combatant commands to put together
intelligence campaign plans. This means commanders will have a set
of objectives that their intelligence assets need to support,
officials said. It puts in place the information requirements
commanders have and how that affects data collection
requirements.
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