"We are an Army in continuous motion."
As the Army Vision 2015-2025: Strategic Advantage in a Complex World succinctly states, our Army is a force simultaneously in transition, action and preparation.
Transitioning from 14 years of sustained deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, we are globally engaged, supporting operations in every theater, while refitting and preparing for emergent missions in a security environment increasingly characterized by the rise of non-state actors, hybrid threats, and expanding urbanization.
Whether supporting combat operations in the Middle East, responding to Russian aggression on the European continent, or organizing with the Joint Force to defend against cyberattacks, our Army is daily engaged, defending the homeland, assuring our allies, fighting our Nation's wars and preparing for the future.
In every operation, our Army Intelligence Corps is there in full support, embedded at echelon, and working to provide the intelligence required to shape the strategic environment, to prevent conflict, and to win decisively if required.
Now entering the fourth year of our Army Intelligence 2020 and Beyond Modernization effort, our Intelligence Corps of 58,000 professionals continues to integrate critical capabilities developed over a decade of war and from more recent experiences supporting the Army's Regionally Aligned Forces.
In this past year, our Intelligence Corps has demonstrated exceptional versatility, supporting Army forces in multiple theaters in a wide range of operations.
From support to Pacific Pathways and Atlantic Resolve, combat and counterterrorist operations in the Middle East and South Asia, humanitarian relief in West Africa and cyber operations globally, our Intelligence Soldiers and Civilians are fully engaged, providing tailorable expeditionary capabilities for our Army wherever and whenever our Nation requires. Whether supporting our deployed forces forward or from distributed reach centers at home station, Army Intelligence is contributing daily to Combatant and Army Commanders situational understanding, expanding the Army's knowledge of every region, and enabling decisive action.
As we look to Army Vision 2015-2025, and to support the intelligence requirements inherent in the Army's Operating Concept, we are adapting our strategy to ensure we can provide the agile, expeditionary, and regionally expert forces our Army requires for its future force and emergent missions. Our Army Intelligence 2020 and Beyond modernization lines of effort include:
• Intelligence Readiness: Foundry: No Cold Starts, No MI Soldier At Rest
• Ubiquitous Access to Data: Distributed Common Ground Station -- Army
• Secure Transport: Relevant Intelligence to the Edge
• Sensors: Integrated, Multi-Disciplined Cyber, Air, and Ground Sensors
• Enhanced Force Structure: National to Tactical Investments
INTELLIGENCE READINESS AND FOUNDRY 2.0: PRODUCING AN AGILE AND EXPERT INTELLIGENCE FORCE FOR A GLOBALLY ENGAGED ARMY
The Army Vision 2015-2025 calls for the Army to produce technically adept, agile Soldiers who are comfortable in joint, coalition and interagency environments, and capable of making complex decisions in real time.
Since 2006, the Army's Foundry Program has focused on these very objectives, increasing the target, technical and regional confidence of our Intelligence Corps with advanced skill training and live immersion in the forward environment. With "No Cold Starts, and No MI Soldiers at Rest" as its credo, the Foundry Program has expanded to meet the needs of a Regionally Aligned Army, incorporating the intelligence competencies directed by each Combatant Command as well as the unique certification requirements dictated by our US Intelligence agencies.
New skill sets now covered in Foundry include Open Source Intelligence and Social Media certification, Processing, Exploitation and Dissemination, and Intelligence support to cyber defense. These latest entries, as well as a growing number of in-theater live environment opportunities are aimed at enhancing our Soldiers' competence, and building the agility, expertise and depth our Army requires to support our forces in current and future security environments.
DCGS-A: THE ARMY'S FOUNDATIONAL LAYER SUPPORTING GLOBAL OPERATIONS
As the Army Intelligence Corps primary weapons system, Distributed Common Ground Station - Army (DCGS-A) remains at the center of our ability to support operations globally as well as the Army envisioned in the Army's Operating Concept.
Globally deployed and supporting operations in every theater, DCGS-A provides the Army's foundational layer for ISR, connecting our Soldiers at every level to the Intelligence Community, to Joint and Army Sensors and Data, and to one another. A system of systems, DCGS-A provides the downlinks, processors, data storage, workstations and software to support deployable and fixed site operations as well as the collaborative environment to support our Soldiers ability to share multi-discipline intelligence across echelons and to inform Army Mission Command and weapons systems with intelligence.
In the coming year, DCGS-A will focus on a number of initiatives that will improve the system's ability to support the Army's expeditionary requirements. In addition to simplifying the user experience for our tactical formations, DCGS-A is refining solutions for coalition interoperability for both the Five Eyes and BICES communities while setting the stage for the program's migration to the Intelligence Community's Information Technology Enterprise (ICITE). These efforts, as well as those aimed at improving analytics to support Open Source Intelligence and cyber defense will ensure DCGS-A remains ready to support our Army for a range of operations in the emerging security environment.
RITE: EMPOWERING SOLDIERS AT THE EDGE
To achieve the flexibility required to support distributed operations, our Army Intelligence Corps must be capable of rapidly integrating into the national-to-tactical classified enterprises that support operations in every theater. In the past few years, we have made great progress in linking our units at home station in with the intelligence operations of the forward theater, and in providing our Soldiers at the Edge with access to Sensitive Information and advanced sensors. With continued work by our Intelligence team's Program Managers and industry partners, we will continue to extend our secure ISR networks from the theater to the squad, ensuring our forces have assured and ready access to the sensors, data, and processing power required to execute their critical tasks.
INTEGRATED SENSORS: INVESTING IN A VERSATILE AND INNOVATIVE CAPABILITY SET
Army Vision 2015-2025 emphasizes the benefits of empowering Soldiers to generate new concepts for material solutions to solve complex problems. For well over a decade, the Army Intelligence Corps has embraced this idea, teaming our Soldiers with the Intelligence Community and industry to develop innovative technologies to enhance our situational understanding while supporting the individual identity resolution we require for precise engagement.
To continue to improve our advantage in these areas, we are working with industry to better integrate advanced multi-disciplined sensors into our Aerial ISR Fleet, accelerating efforts to provide a Soldier designed, network enabled platform capable of Signals, Human, Counter Intelligence, All Source and Sensitive Site Exploitation for our Multi-functional Collection teams, and enhancing our Army's Global Processing Exploitation and Dissemination (PED) Center at Fort Gordon, Georgia access to national and joint Aerial, Ground, Space and Cyber sensors.
Looking forward, we will continue to pursue sensors capable of cross-cueing and tipping, efforts that streamline our sensor architectures, and systems that support the Expeditionary PED of our new MI Brigades. Teaming with the Intelligence Community, we will seek the best of breed for Open Source Intelligence, Insider Threat Detection and Continuous Evaluation to ensure our forces have access to the best capabilities to succeed in the evolving competitive threat environment.
ENHANCED FORCE STRUCTURE: PROVIDING EXPEDITIONARY CAPABILITIES FOR A REGIONALLY ENGAGED ARMY
Finally, Army Vision 2015-2025 emphasizes the importance of transforming our Army to a more expeditionary, regionally expert force capable of rapidly deploying to any theater and supporting distributed operations from great distances. Today, the Army Intelligence Corps is on an aggressive path to do just that.
This year, the Army introduced two additional Theater Intelligence Brigades (TIBs) for US Army Africa and US Army North to provide dedicated multi-discipline intelligence to these commands and as the anchors for their regionally aligned forces. These units, along with the other 5 TIBs, and the Army's seven new Military Intelligence Brigades (Expeditionary) at Corps will increase our ability to provide regionally tailored intelligence collection, analysis and PED for a full range of Army and Joint missions and conditions. Concurrently, the build out of the Army's 116th Aerial Intelligence Brigade, the Army's Global PED Center, the 780th Military Intelligence Brigade (Cyber) and the roll out of Open Source Intelligence across our theaters will assist us in ensuring we can satisfy the intelligence demands of our regionally aligned Army.
INTELLIGENCE 2020 AND BEYOND: SETTING CONDITIONS FOR THE ARMY'S FUTURE FORCE
To support an Army in continuous motion, our Army Intelligence team is working daily to ensure we support our Army with a regionally expert Intelligence Force with the capabilities required for the current and future security environment. In this effort, we will continue to evolve, incorporating advanced technologies, skill sets and formations to ensure we can provide the best support to our Army now and in the future. As we do, we will continue to adapt our modernization strategy to ensure we can support the increasingly agile and engaged Army envisioned in the Army Operating Concept. Through disciplined commitment to Foundry and Intelligence Readiness, DCGS-A, RITE, Integrated Sensors and our Enhanced Force Structure, we are confident we can continue to provide the most responsive intelligence support possible with the expertise, capabilities, and depth required to support our Army and Nation for years to come.
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