The Defense Department last week authorized the creation of the Defense Intelligence Operations Coordination Center (DIOCC).
DIOCC will strengthen the ability of defense intelligence to synchronize intelligence operations and collection to support the combatant commands, a DIA statement said. The DIOCC Initial Operating Capability was established at the start of the new fiscal year, Oct. 1. DIOCC’s full operating capability for the DIOCC is planned for August 2008.
DIA Director Army Lt. Gen. Michael Maples has been appointed as DIOCC director and Air Force Brig. Gen. Jim Whitmore will serve as the DIOCC deputy director.
The DIOCC integrates into a single organization the functions of DIA’s Defense Joint Intelligence Operations Center (DJIOC) and the United States Strategic Command’s Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (JFCCISR).
The DIOCC will also serve as DoD’s focal point to interface with the new National Intelligence Coordination Center (NIC-C).
The establishment of JFCC-ISR in 2005 and the DJIOC in 2006 represented the initial effort of the Department of Defense to integrate intelligence and operations, and to better coordinate defense and national intelligence capabilities and activities, the statement said. The DJIOC and JFCCISR have done an exceptional job in a short period of time and have had a significant impact on global intelligence operations. The successes achieved by DJIOC and JFCC-ISR have enabled the establishment of the DIOCC and the NIC-C, it added.
The DIOCC represents a natural evolutionary step to integrate capabilities and, when partnered with the NIC-C, takes the intelligence community toward the integrated application of their intelligence resources against their highest priorities.