On Apr. 21, 1981, the Defense Intelligence Agency held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new home.

From 1961 to 1981, a series of DIA directors had engaged in a persistent effort to acquire a new building that would allow the agency to move from the crowded and outdated buildings at Arlington Hall Station and consolidate agency elements scattered in a variety of locations throughout the Washington, D.C., area. In 1981, DIA finally broke ground on the site of the new Defense Intelligence Analysis Center (DIAC) located on Bolling Air Force Base and the facility officially opened in May 1984. The DIAC was redesignated as DIA headquarters in 2012.

Today DIA headquarters is a valuable facility even as most agency personnel are based outside of the National Capital Region. DIA uses all-source defense intelligence to prevent strategic surprise and deliver a decision advantage to war fighters, defense planners and policymakers. The agency collects and analyzes key data using a variety of tools, and deploys its personnel globally, alongside war fighters and interagency partners, to defend America’s national security interests.;