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Senior
Military Intelligence Officers' Conference
(SMIOC) History
The
Senior Military Intelligence Officers' Conference (SMIOC) brings
together the leadership of the combatant command J-2s, the Service
intelligence chiefs, and other Defense and Intelligence Community
officials for a review of issues and concerns affecting the Defense
Intelligence Community. Led by the Director, Defense Intelligence
Agency (DIA), the conference began in the late 1970's as an annual
2-day meeting.
The need for such a body is rooted in the origins and development
of DIA. In December 1960, a Presidential study group recommended
that the intelligence control channels be brought into consonance
with the DoD Reorganization Act of 1958. The change gave the Unified
and Specified (U&S) Commanders greater control over the intelligence
operations of their respective components, and at the same time
consolidated military intelligence activities at the DoD level.
The intent was to improve intelligence coordination within the
DoD to achieve a more closely integrated Defense Intelligence Community.
DIA became operational on 1 October 1961 as the Nation's primary
producer of foreign military intelligence and the central intelligence
manager for DoD. The Agency was charged with supporting the requirements
of the Secretary of Defense, the JCS, the military forces, as well
as other policymakers. In June 1963, the J-2 of the Joint Staff
was disestablished and its staff support functions assigned to
DIA. By 1964, a much-broadened intelligence capability covering
a wide spectrum of the decisionmaking processes as they related
specifically to a military force or to an entire theater of operations,
had been instituted.
Additional measures to strengthen the U&S Commands' staff
intelligence capabilities followed in the 1970's as DIA sought
to ensure the U&S Commands and the Services of its commitment
to maintaining ". . . a strong and continuing support to the operating
forces." To this end, DIA Director, Lt Gen Eugene F. Tighe, Jr.,
established in 1979, a Directorate for JCS Support in DIA to increase
the Agency's effectiveness in providing support to military operational
intelligence consumers. Moreover, he saw that it "would be beneficial
to our community" for a forum--i.e., the SMIOC, to "freely exchange
thoughts and ideas as well as intelligence information on significant
issues of mutual interest."
In 1983, DIA Director, LTG James A. Williams, informed the SMIOC
membership that, "Each year I host a Senior Military Intelligence
Officers' conference attended by intelligence officers from the
Unified and Specified Commands, the Services and Defense Agencies
[to provide] . . . information that is of paramount interest and
concern to all intelligence officers and tactical commanders." He
called for continued ". . . working together to improve intelligence
support provided to the Commands and their subordinate elements."
Specifically, the Agency set about identifying a methodology for
the development of U&S Command intelligence architectures.
The purpose was to develop a systematic framework which defined
the U&S Commands' existing and projected mission, organization,
capabilities, resources, and information flows, and as a result,
improve intelligence support to the Commands' warfighting capabilities.
These efforts were followed by the l986 Goldwater-Nichols "Department
of Defense Reorganization Act" which charged DIA with developing
joint intelligence doctrine which would enhance DIA-U&S Command
cooperation. The legislation identified DIA as an agency supporting
the warfighting commands.
By 1987, DIA sought to actively involve the U&S Commands in
the Defense intelligence planning, programming, and budgeting process
in an environment of increasing requirements and high-risk conflict.
This meant satisfying their intelligence requirements, integrating
master plans and architectures, developing a joint intelligence
doctrine as well as joint intelligence interoperability/standardization,
and increasing the channels of communications and interaction.
These themes carried into the 1990's as major SMIOC issues.
"No combat commander has ever had as full and complete a view
of his adversary as did our field commander. Intelligence support
to OPERATIONS DESERT SHIELD and DESERT STORM was a success story," stated
JCS Chairman, General Colin Powell. Following the Gulf War in 1992,
each SMIOC adopted a theme that would provide an intelligence roadmap
for increasing the readiness of operational commanders in the 21st
Century. The SMIOC generally meets twice a year and the membership
has remained essentially the same since the first meeting.
DIA Historian’s Office
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