Been there done that and seen it work...
Posted on 04/12/2006 6:07:46 PM PDT by SandRat
WASHINGTON, April 12, 2006 – The Defense Department is moving to establish a worldwide group of joint intelligence organizations designed to rapidly gather, interpret and act on information to better meet 21st-century military needs, senior military officials said here today. On April 3, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld issued a directive to establish a Joint Intelligence Operations Center at DoD's Defense Intelligence Agency, at each unified combatant command and at U.S. Forces Korea, Army Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence and warfighting support, told reporters at a news briefing.
"What we're trying to do is move towards 'operationalizing' intelligence," Boykin explained. This entails transforming military intelligence from being a staff function into "both a staff function, when appropriate, and an operational concept," he said.
Findings of Capitol Hill and DoD commissions and studies, including the latest Quadrennial Defense Review, conducted since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States recommended the department integrate and improve the processes it uses to more rapidly gather, analyze and act on intelligence information, Boykin said.
One of the first changes DoD made to improve its intelligence structure, Boykin said, was to establish the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence in 2003, headed by Stephen A. Cambone.
Cambone then directed a study titled "Taking Stock of Defense Intelligence," which sought present and future warfighting requirements feedback from combatant commanders and DoD's global intelligence community, Boykin said.
DoD also conducted a "Reform of Human Intelligence" study at about the same time, Boykin said.
The two studies were combined into a single program in January 2004, called "Remodeling Defense Intelligence." The JOIC concept came out of the RDI initiative, Boykin said.
A JOIC that's now operational in Baghdad will serve as a template for the other new centers, Boykin said.
"We're getting nothing but positive feedback from Iraq," Boykin said. That center uses a single-source analytical database system, he said, which saves time during intelligence operations.
Analysts at the Iraq JOIC now accomplish tasks in minutes that would routinely take hours to do at an old-style center, Boykin said.
Boykin said the JOIC system is structured to eliminate traditional chain-of-command logjams to facilitate rapid cross-communications between analysts and intelligence gatherers in the field, known as collectors.
"What we're trying to do is create a situation where the analyst is talking to the collector, and there's no filter in the middle," Boykin said.
Collection managers work with analysts and collectors to maintain information flows, set priorities and allocate resources, Boykin said.
Initiatives like JOIC are part of U.S. efforts "to continuously strive to improve our intelligence system, whether that be in support of the president of the United States, in support of our troops deployed around the world, or those working here to protect the homeland," said Army Lt. Gen. Ronald L. Burgess Jr., deputy director of national intelligence for customer outcomes at the National Intelligence Directorate.
The key goal is to achieve more integrated and better-focused intelligence activities that are closely linked with actual operations, Burgess said.
"The JOIC concept gets us to that linkage that we need to see," the general said.
Modern battlefields like Afghanistan and Iraq have highlighted the need for decentralized intelligence activities that can rapidly assess information and then "react to the fleeting opportunities that we have to get a target that is presented to us," Burgess said.
Does art imitate reality or reality imitate art????? On Monday's episode of 24........
Been there done that and seen it work...
So now the deadwood that is back in the states MIGHT have to go out into the field?
heh heh heh I can't wait :)
Interesing. I have to also wonder if it isn't a way to sidestep the dysfunctional aspects of the CIA.
OSS did this in WWII...CIA during the Cold War...this is nothing new.
"I'm gonna need a hacksaw."
Operations Commanders need Intelligence and they need it fast, especially if lives depends on it. The best way to do it is to get the Intel guys on the front. Where they can talk to the Commander directly with reach-back capability back to the U.S. to get tailored intelligence upon request. I am glad to see it has been finally done. It will pretty much cut out the bureaucratic delays that effect many D.C. Agencies.
I was a member of such a team for 3 years and we made sure the folks got the info they needed to do their job. We were attached to smaller units and very flexible in our ability to provide Intelligence. In such a situation it worked quite well.
Sounds good to me. Just keep JAG lawyers out of the chain.
Nothing really shocking. I just sit back and wait, sooner or later Tom Clancy will write about it and make it sound better than I could.
If a JAG Lawyer wants to get on the front line they are more then welcome...They could be useful for mine clearing operations.
LOL! Now we're talking!
Especially the one that stopped the Hellfire shot at Mullah Omar.
LOL! Maybe you should invite him to lunch and "pitch" a few scenarios...get any agreement in writing first!
BTTT
It's sure taken them long enough to think about the various systems and locales that they had, and begin to revive, restore, or put out RFP's to replace them. The system I worked on doesn't exist anymore, in a form that would provide the computer-aided analysis and correlation for operational intel in the timely fashion that we used to. Sigh.
Before I retired I tried out some of the newer systems and they were pretty damn good. I pestered the project managers to get these in the hands of the Analysts ASAP. I just hope the kids have these tools. If not. I figure some Empire builder at Ft. Meade or Bolling put the kibosh to it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.