The Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Agency stood up a human intelligence detachment at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, Aug. 14, thereby re-establishing Humint as a core intelligence discipline. Det. 6, as it is known, is the first Humint unit in the Air Force since 1995. “This detachment signifies another step forward in re-establishing Humint in the Air Force,” said Maj. Gen. Craig Koziol, AF ISR Agency commander. The unit is co-located with the agency’s National Air and Space Intelligence Center. The Air Force has had an initial cadre of Humint personnel in place since November 2007. AFISRA expects the new detachment to transition to squadron-level over the next few years. Creation of the unit is part of the service’s ongoing transformation of its ISR operations and organizations. Last month for example, the 480th Intelligence Wing at Langley AFB, Va., formally incorporated three intelligence groups from Germany, Hawaii, and South Korea to align the service’s distributed common ground system under one organizational roof. (Includes Lackland report by Maj. Michelle Lai)
Pentagon leaders, eager to move fast and avoid pitfalls that have plagued defense acquisition in the past, are handing authorities and oversight for some of their biggest programs to officers outside the traditional structure. But the Air Force and Space Force four-stars given those responsibilities say they don’t intend their jobs to be a permanent change to the system.