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
