Increase in int staffing thanks to Flood Report

By Leesha Furse

MORE military personnel are likely to be assigned to Defence’s intelligence agencies as a result of the Federal Government accepting all the recommendations of a report into Australia’s five intelligence agencies.

The Report of the Inquiry into Australian Intelligence Agencies, prepared by Phillip Flood, has recommended a strategy be agreed to increase military staffing in the Defence Intelligence Organisation (DIO) and Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation (DIGO) to reflect the “growing importance of intelligence in warfighting and planning”.

The three Service chiefs had already started a review of ADF staffing levels when the report was handed down in July.

“To fulfil its mandate effectively, DIO will need assistance from the ADF, in particular through better articulation of ADF intelligence requirements and the placement of more uniformed officers in DIO, including in senior leadership positions,” the report said.

DIO has about 300 staff, an increase of about 12 per cent since 1999-2000.

The report said it was a matter of concern that there had been a decline in DIO’s uniformed staff from 34 per cent of total staffing in 1996 to less than 20 per cent in 2004.

According to the report, $5 million a year is spent on ADF personnel serving in DIO.

“The issue of ADF staffing is largely out of DIO’s control, but DIO needs to continue to make the case to commanders to increase the number of its uniformed staff and secure high-quality ADF personnel,” the report stated.

The number of ADF members within DIGO was described as “less than ideal”.

“DIGO allocates in the order of 70 per cent of its resources to support of the ADF; it cannot realise maximum value with only 5 per cent of its staff coming from the ADF,” the report found.

“A modest increase in ADF staffing levels would improve DIGO’s ability to provide tailored and timely support to the ADF.

Such an increase would help ensure that DIGO has appropriate staff to support ADF deployments and to build links with the ADF headquarters and units that are prime users of imagery and geospatial products.”

The report said a uniformed presence helped to ground the agencies in the Defence environment and assist mutual understanding.

It noted that significant progress had been made in recent years to entrench an understanding of intelligence as a defence capability, regarding and developing it in the same way as the ADF’s air, land and sea forces. Recent warfighting trends and the high operational tempo of the ADF were also helping with this.

The full report is available at http://www.pmc.gov.au/intelligence_inquiry/index.htm.