DISA poised to create intelligence entity in 2024
The Defense Information Systems Agency expects to have a new intelligence unit up and running later this year, according to the agency.
Last year, DISA’s director Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner announced the agency would adopt what are known as J codes in an effort to more closely align with the entities it works with as a combat support agency. Those J codes refer to directorates that include personnel, operations, plans and intelligence, among others.
“I’m a firm believer that as a combat support agency, which is our identity, we should be more aligned to those organizations that we provide support to, which is our agencies and our combatant commands. The more we can function [and] align with what we are doing with our mission partners, the better,” Skinner said at AFCEA’s Northern Virgina chapter’s annual Army IT Day conference on Thursday.
The new intelligence unit, known as a J2, will “compile relevant intelligence reporting from the Department of Defense and intelligence community to provide DISA senior leaders with global situational awareness and threat assessments against DISA operations and assets,” according to a spokesperson.
This will be the first time DISA has had an intelligence unit. It’s currently under development and is expected to be fully operational later this year, the spokesperson added.
“Being the owners and the keepers of the majority of this thing we call the [DOD Information Network] and the [Defense Information Systems Network], why wouldn’t we have an intelligence function that is providing us the threat picture and understanding what the adversary is trying to do against the terrain that DISA owns?” Skinner said.
While there is also a Joint Force Headquarters-DODIN, a subordinate headquarters under U.S. Cyber Command responsible for protecting and defending the Pentagon’s network globally that Skinner commands as well, he noted that entity is responsible for the entirety of the network, not necessarily the entirety of what DISA is responsible for.
As a combat support agency, DISA provides infrastructure, IT support, communications and other battlefield technology to combatant commands.
