Defense Intelligence Agency seeks AI validation tools as Hegseth pushes for tech deployments
The U.S. agency responsible for providing intelligence on foreign militaries is reaching out to industry in its pursuit of new capabilities to test, evaluate, verify and validate new AI technologies.
The outreach came in a request for information from the Defense Intelligence Agency released earlier this week.
As AI-enabled capabilities “become increasingly central to intelligence operations and national security decision-making, establishing trust through demonstrated reliability, cybersecurity, safety, accuracy, robustness, and adherence to ethical and legal standards is paramount,” officials wrote.
Effective testing, evaluation, verification and validation of these tools are “the cornerstone for building confidence among operational users, mission owners, senior leadership, and policy makers that AI systems perform as intended, produce trustworthy outputs, mitigate unintended risks, and align with established legal and regulatory frameworks,” they added.
DIA is tasked with providing intel to warfighters, policymakers and force planners in the Defense Department and Intelligence Community, in support of U.S. military planning, operations and weapon systems acquisition, according to the agency.
The organization is aiming to implement a “mature” capability to accelerate the adoption and acceptance of “transformative” AI tech throughout the defense intelligence enterprise, according to the RFI.
The special notice comes as President Donald Trump’s national security team is pushing hard for U.S. government agencies to adopt new artificial intelligence tools.
Earlier this week, the Pentagon published a new AI strategy. And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spotlighted his team’s broad agenda of initiatives to transform DOD into “an ‘AI-first’ warfighting force across all components, from front to back.”
He also called on Pentagon and Intelligence Community leaders to ensure that all “appropriate data” from the military’s weapons and IT systems is made available for “AI exploitation” in the future.
Via the new request for information, DIA officials said they hope to learn more about industry best practices, innovative approaches, mature methodologies, and state-of-the-art tooling to enhance AI test, evaluation, verification and validation capabilities and address the unique requirements of intelligence mission systems.
Officials noted that the agency is looking for an enterprise solution, but certain mission areas may require specialized approaches.
“DIA believes that effective AI [testing, evaluation, verification and validation] must address a spectrum of system types supporting analysis, collection, operations, targeting, and business management, amongst others,” per the RFI.
The agency’s AI-enabled capabilities may involve development and training environments as well as operational deployment across multiple security domains and classification levels, according to the notice.
“Solutions must account for testing and validation requirements across this continuum, including appropriate isolation, data management, and security considerations for each domain,” officials wrote.
They noted that DIA is especially interested in automation that will enable continuous testing and evaluation throughout the technology lifecycle, including the development, deployment and operational monitoring phases.
Responses to the RFI are due by Feb. 6.
Last year, the Trump administration fired the head of DIA, Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, without offering a public explanation for his removal. The agency is currently led by Maj. Gen. Constantin Nicolet, who is serving as acting director.
