Defence Intelligence (DI) is an organisation within the

United Kingdom intelligence community The Government of the United Kingdom maintains intelligence agencies within three government departments, the Foreign Office, the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence. These agencies are responsible for collecting and analysing foreign and do ...

which focuses on gathering and analysing

military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...

. It differs from the UK's intelligence agencies (

MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

, GCHQ and MI5) in that it is an integral part of a government department – the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

(MoD) – rather than a stand-alone organisation. The organisation employs a mixture of civilian and military staff and is funded within the UK's defence budget. The organisation was formerly known as the Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS), but changed its name in 2009. The primary role of Defence Intelligence is that of ' all-source'

intelligence analysis Intelligence analysis is the application of individual and collective cognitive methods to weigh data and test hypotheses within a secret socio-cultural context. The descriptions are drawn from what may only be available in the form of deliberate ...

. This discipline draws information from a variety of overt and covert sources to provide the intelligence needed to support military operations, contingency planning, and to inform defence policy and procurement decisions. The maintenance of the ability to give timely strategic warning of politico-military and scientific and technical developments with the potential to affect UK interests is a vital part of the process. DI's assessments are used outside the MoD to support the work of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) and to assist the work of other Government departments (OGDs) and international partners (such as

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

and the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

). It is this 'all-source' function which distinguishes Defence Intelligence from other organisations such as SIS and GCHQ which focus on the collection of 'single-source' Human Intelligence ( HUMINT) and Signals Intelligence ( SIGINT) respectively. As such Defence Intelligence occupies a unique position within the UK intelligence community. Defence Intelligence is headed up by the Chief of Defence, currently Adrian Bird who replaced General James Hockenhull after his appointment as Commander, Strategic Command

History

Origins

Defence Intelligence can trace its history back to 1873 with the formation of the Intelligence Branch of the British

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

, which, in 1888, became the Directorate of Military Intelligence. The

Committee of Imperial Defence The Committee of Imperial Defence was an important ''ad hoc'' part of the Government of the United Kingdom and the British Empire from just after the Second Boer War until the start of the Second World War. It was responsible for research, and som ...

, established in 1902, had the task of co-ordinating the different armed services on issues of

military strategy Military strategy is a set of ideas implemented by military organizations to pursue desired strategic goals. Derived from the Greek word '' strategos'', the term strategy, when it appeared in use during the 18th century, was seen in its narrow s ...

intelligence assessments and estimates.

Military Intelligence

During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

(1914–1918), ''Military Intelligence'' (MI) departments, such as

MI1 MI1 or British ''Military Intelligence, Section 1'' was a department of the British Directorate of Military Intelligence, part of the War Office. It was set up during World War I. It contained "C&C", which was responsible for code breaking. I ...

for the secretariat of the Director of Military Intelligence (now GCHQ), were responsible for various intelligence gathering functions. Many of the original MI departments, such as

MI4 MI4 was a department of the British Directorate of Military Intelligence, Section 4, part of the War Office. It was responsible for aerial reconnaissance and interpretation. It developed into the JARIC intelligence agency. The present day su ...

(Aerial Photography) were renamed or eventually subsumed into Defence Intelligence.

Joint Intelligence Bureau

Shortly after the 1945 end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the topographical department of the

was transformed into the Joint Intelligence Bureau (JIB), and its director, Sir Kenneth Strong, became a full member of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) in January 1947. The JIB was structured into a series of divisions: procurement (JIB 1), geographic (JIB 2 and JIB 3), defences, ports and beaches (JIB 4), airfields (JIB 5), key points (JIB 6), oil (JIB 7) and telecommunications (JIB 8).

Defence Intelligence Staff

When the

(MOD) formed in 1964,

Naval Intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...

Military Intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...

and

Air Intelligence The Directorate General Air Intelligence, known as "Air Intelligence" and its acronym "AI", ( ur, ) is the intelligence arm of the Pakistan Air Force. It is headquartered in Islamabad, Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islami ...

combined to form the Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS). Although the DIS focussed initially on Cold-War issues, more recently its attention has moved to support for overseas operations, to

weapons of mass destruction A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to numerous individuals or cause great damage to artificial structures (e.g., buildings), natura ...

and to international counter-terrorism activities. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Defence Intelligence has regularly released intelligence information, including information on the course of the war. The

Russian government The Government of Russia exercises executive power in the Russian Federation. The members of the government are the prime minister, the deputy prime ministers, and the federal ministers. It has its legal basis in the Constitution of the Russia ...

accuses the UK Government of a targeted disinformation campaign.

Organisation

Defence Intelligence is headed by the Chief of Defence Intelligence (CDI) who is either a serving three-star military officer or a Senior Civil Servant and who, as the MOD's 'intelligence process owner', is also responsible for the overall co-ordination of intelligence activities throughout the Armed Forces and single Service Commands. He is supported by two deputies—one civilian and one military. The civilian Deputy Chief of Defence Intelligence (DCDI) is responsible for Defence Intelligence analysis and production and the military Director of Cyber Intelligence and Information Integration (DCI3) is responsible for intelligence collection and capability.

Deputy Chief of Defence Intelligence (DCDI)

DCDI manages the intelligence analysis and production directorates of Defence Intelligence. These include directorates for: * Strategic Assessments (regional and thematic) * Capability Assessments (weapons systems and platforms) * Counter Proliferation * Counter Intelligence DCDI is responsible for intelligence analysis and production, providing global defence intelligence assessments and strategic warning on a wide range of issues including, intelligence support for operations; proliferation and arms control; conventional military capabilities; strategic warning and technical evaluations of weapons systems. These intelligence assessments draw upon classified information provided by GCHQ, SIS, the Security Service, Allied intelligence services and military collection assets, in addition to diplomatic reporting and a wide range of publicly available or ‘open source’ information such as media reporting and the internet.

Director of Cyber Intelligence and Information Integration (DCI3)

DCI3 is responsible for the provision of specialised intelligence, imagery and geographic support services, and for the intelligence and security training of the Armed Forces. In addition to a Head Office policy staff he is responsible for two major groupings within Defence Intelligence:

Joint Forces Intelligence Group (JFIG)

The JFIG was established in 2012 under the new Joint Forces Command and superseded the Intelligence Collection Group (ICG). Making up the largest sub-element of Defence Intelligence, JFIG is responsible for the collection of

signals In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

, geospatial,

imagery Imagery is visual symbolism, or figurative language that evokes a mental image or other kinds of sense impressions, especially in a literary work, but also in other activities such as psychotherapy. Forms There are five major types of sensory ima ...

and measurement and signature intelligence and comprises: * The National Centre for Geospatial Intelligence (NCGI) formerly known as the Defence Geospatial Intelligence Fusion Centre (DGIFC) and prior to that JARIC (Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre) *The Defence Geographic Centre (DGC) * Joint Services Signals Organisation (JSSO) * Defence HUMINT Unit (DHU) The National Centre for Geospatial Intelligence (NCGI) is based at RAF Wyton in Cambridgeshire (since moving from

RAF Brampton RAF Brampton was a non-flying Royal Air Force installation near Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, England. Formerly the home of RAF Support Command, it also became the home of several elements of Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S), which itself was ...

in 2013) and provides specialist imagery intelligence to the armed forces and other UK government customers. They deliver this through the exploitation of satellite imaging systems, as well as airborne and ground-based collection systems. NCGI uses these sources, together with advanced technologies, to provide regional intelligence assessments and support to strategic intelligence projections. The Defence HUMINT Organisation (DHO) is a Tri-Service organisation that provides specialist support to military operations. The DHO manages strategic aspects of defence human intelligence and is under the command of a Colonel. It draws staff from across the three services. The Joint Services Signals Organisation (JSSO) conducts research into new communications systems and techniques in order to provide operational support to static and deployed units. The JSSO is based at RAF Digby in Lincolnshire under the command of a Group Captain with some 1,600 staff drawn from all three services. In 2013, JFIG HQ moved from Feltham in Middlesex to RAF Wyton.

Joint Intelligence Training Group (JITG)

The Joint Intelligence Training Group (JITG), at Chicksands,

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council wa ...

, provides a single defence focal point for intelligence, security, languages and photography training in the UK, though photography training is carried out at the

Defence School of Photography )Also translates as We write ''by'' light. This was the motto of the RAF School of Photography which became the motto of the Joint School of Photography in 1972. Whilst it was a Joint School, it retained an approved RAF Badge up until its name c ...

(DSoP) at RAF Cosford. The organisation consists of a headquarters, the Defence College of Intelligence and a specialist operational intelligence capability. JITG is co-located with the headquarters of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

's Intelligence Corps.

Defence intelligence roles

To support its mission, Defence Intelligence has four essential roles: Support to operations: DI plays an integral part in the planning process throughout all stages of military operations, by providing intelligence collection and analysis at the tactical, operational and strategic levels. Examples of the support DI has provided to operations are: * Coalition action in Iraq * NATO led forces in Afghanistan and Bosnia * UN humanitarian and peace-support operations in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cyprus, Eritrea and the Democratic Republic of Congo DI has deployed intelligence analysts, linguists and reservists overseas, and provide geographic support by supplying both standard and specialised mapping to overseas theatres. Support to contingency planning for operations: DI provides intelligence data and all source assessments that assist in preparations for future situations with the potential to require the commitment of UK Armed Forces. These products, which cover political and military developments, country and cultural information, critical infrastructure and internal security, all aid contingency planning. Provision of early warning: A fundamental responsibility of Defence Intelligence is to alert ministers, chiefs of staff, senior officials and defence planners to impending crises around the world. Such warning is vital for short and medium term planning. DI meets this responsibility by focusing on current areas and topics of concern, highlighting the effects of changing circumstances, predicting security and stability trends, and assessing how these trends may develop. The assessments are distributed to decision-makers throughout the MOD, the Armed Forces, other government departments, allies, and UK Embassies and High Commissions. Provision of longer-term analysis of emerging threats: Defence Intelligence provides longer-term assessments of likely scenarios around the world where UK Armed Forces might need to operate and of the equipment that they might face. It also provides technical support to the development of future military equipment and to the development of countermeasures against potentially hostile systems.

How Defence Intelligence carries out its work

Direction: The Chief of Defence Intelligence (CDI) receives direction from the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and Permanent Under Secretary (PUS) on MOD's Intelligence needs and draws national guidance from the Cabinet Office Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC). Analysis and production: Intelligence assessments are written to meet the needs of customers and must be timely and relevant. The assessment process involves judging the authenticity and reliability of new information and its relevance to existing intelligence. Assessments focus on probable and possible outcomes, to provide the best available advice for developing a response or resolution. They are continually adjusted in light of new intelligence or events.

Chiefs of Defence Intelligence

The Chiefs have been as follows:
Director-General Intelligence * Major-General Sir Kenneth Strong, 1964–1966 * Air Chief Marshal Sir

Alfred Earle Air Chief Marshal Sir Alfred Earle, (11 December 1907 – 27 March 1990) was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War who later served as Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff (1964–66), and Director General of British ...

, rtd 1966–1968 * Air Marshal Sir

Harold Maguire Air Marshal Sir Harold John Maguire, (12 April 1912 – 1 February 2001) was a senior Royal Air Force officer and public servant. He was Director-General of Intelligence at the Ministry of Defence from 1968 to 1972. RAF career Harold Maguire w ...

, rtd 1968–1972 * Vice-Admiral Sir Louis Le Bailly rtd 1972–1975 * Lieutenant-General Sir

David Willison Lieutenant General Sir David Willison, (25 December 1919 – 24 April 2009) was a British Army officer who served with the Royal Engineers from 1939 to 1963, after which he served in a series of military intelligence roles until his retirement ...

, rtd 1975–1978 * Air Chief Marshal Sir John Aiken, rtd 1978–1981 * Vice-Admiral Sir Roy Halliday, rtd 1981–1984 Chiefs of Defence Intelligence * Air Marshal Sir Michael Armitage 1984–1986 * Lieutenant-General Sir

Derek Boorman Lieutenant-General Sir Derek Boorman (born 30 September 1930) is a retired former senior British Army officer. Military career Educated at Wolstanton Grammar School and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst,Debrett's People of Today 1994 Boorman ...

1986–1988 * Vice-Admiral Sir John Kerr 1988–1991 * Air Marshal Sir John Walker, 1991–1994 * Lieutenant-General Sir John Foley, 1994–1997 * Vice-Admiral Sir Alan West, 1997–2000 * Air Marshal Sir Joe French, 2000–2003 * Lieutenant-General Sir

Andrew Ridgway Lieutenant General Sir Andrew Peter Ridgway, (born 20 March 1950) is a former British Army officer and Lieutenant Governor of Jersey. He was appointed to the latter role for a 5-year term on 14 June 2006 after a long military career. Early life ...

, 2003–2006 * Air Marshal Sir

Stuart Peach Air Chief Marshal Stuart William Peach, Baron Peach, (born 22 February 1956) is a retired senior Royal Air Force officer. After training as a navigator, Peach commanded IX (Bomber) Squadron and then became Deputy Station Commander RAF Bruggen. ...

2006–2009 * Air Marshal Christopher Nickols 2009–2012 * Vice-Admiral

Alan Richards Vice-admiral (Royal Navy), Vice Admiral Alan David Richards, (born 1958) is a retired Royal Navy officer who served as Chief of Defence Intelligence from 2012 to 2015. Naval career Richards joined the Royal Navy in 1977.

2012–2015 * Air Marshal

Philip Osborn Air Marshal Philip Colin Osborn, is a senior Royal Air Force officer who served as Chief of Defence Intelligence from 2015 to 2018. RAF career Osborn joined the Royal Air Force in 1982. After training as a Tornado navigator, he became comma ...

2015–2018 * General James Hockenhull 2018–2022 * Adrian Bird 2022–Present

References

Sources

External links

Defence Intelligence

Defence Intelligence Staff
(last updated 2012)
National Intelligence Machinery

Defence Intelligence
(last updated 2012; withdrawn 2014) {{Authority control British intelligence agencies Huntingdonshire Military communications of the United Kingdom Military intelligence agencies Military units and formations established in 1964 Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom) Organisations based in Cambridgeshire Science and technology in Cambridgeshire