DIA Director: Intel Work Force Undergoing Generational Change

San Antonio
—


The intelligence community’s work force is undergoing a dynamic generational change, and the wide variety of threats facing the United States make intelligence collaboration among U.S. agencies and military services more important now than ever, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) said Oct. 22 at the Geoint 2007 Symposium.

Army Lt. Gen. Michael Maples said two-thirds of DIA’s work force has been hired since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, and one-third of the work force across the intelligence community is under 30 years old.

As this new intelligence work force establishes itself, Maples said it is up to his generation to provide the next generation with the tools they need to succeed.

“This transformation that we’re undergoing has got to ensure greater access to all parts of intelligence and all sources of intelligence to make our analysts all-source analysts,” Maples said. “And we have to provide them with tools to make them more effective.”

Maples stressed getting the right information to the right people at the right time is crucial to staying on top of evolving military challenges.

“Getting it to those who can do something with the intelligence we are providing,” he said. “That’s how we can be successful in this changing strategic operating environment we find ourselves.”

Maples said the threat spectrum is broader than ever, with the United States having to deal with not only established nation states with large conventional weapons inventories and emerging nations with modernizing militaries, but terrorist adversaries operating in the ungoverned spaces of the world as well.

In this time of great change, great uncertainty and increasing complexity, geospatial intelligence continues to be the foundation for all the efforts across the defense intelligence enterprise, he said.

“For us to be successful, it will require the focused effort of all the intelligence missions operating together, operating seamlessly, and taking integration and collaboration from words to reality,” Maples said.