Press Release

Lt. Gen. Ronald L. Burgess Assumes Directorship of the Defense Intelligence Agency

Washington D.C. - March 18, 2009

In a ceremony held at the Defense Intelligence Analysis Center today, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Ronald L. Burgess Jr. became the 17th director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and assumed command of the Joint Functional Component Command for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (JFCC-ISR) for U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM).

Burgess succeeds U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, who had been the director of DIA and commander of the JFCC-ISR since Nov. 4, 2005. U.S. Air Force Gen. Kevin P. Chilton, commander of USSTRATCOM, passed the flag of the JFCC-ISR from Maples to Burgess, signifying the change of command. The Honorable James R. Clapper Jr., undersecretary of defense for intelligence, officiated for the DIA change of directorship.

As the director of DIA, Burgess is the principal advisor to the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on substantive intelligence matters and serves as the manager for defense human intelligence and defense counterintelligence. He also directs and manages resources under the General Defense Intelligence Program and DoD’s Foreign Counterintelligence Program.

In his remarks, Burgess observed that those who have the biggest stake in DIA were not present. He pointed out that rather than being at the ceremony, they were “flying helicopters or jets, riding mine resistant vehicles, standing watch at sea, taking down improvised explosive devices networks or planning a raid, building a school or a bridge or providing a safe and secure environment so that other people may come to know some of the same freedoms that we cherish today.”

He referred to these people as “the warfighters and those who support them” and opined, “this agency’s very existence – and its mission – is about enabling their success – in peace; in war and all operations between.” He concluded by saying, “That is the vital mission that defines who we are as an agency – a combat support agency.”

Under Maples’ leadership, DIA nearly doubled in size while implementing defense intelligence initiatives including the establishment of the Defense Intelligence Operations Coordination Center, creation of the Defense Counterintelligence and Human Intelligence Center, creation of a National Measurement and Signature Intelligence Management Office, and a study that brought combatant command civilians into DIA. While effecting these changes, Maples kept the Agency focused on the conditions in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Global War on Terrorism, and increased DIA’s forward deployed capabilities and support to the Combatant Commands.

Burgess has nearly 35 years of commissioned service in military intelligence and has held key intelligence positions at the Joint Special Operations Command, the U.S. Southern Command and the Joint Staff. Prior to assuming his new position, he served as the director of intelligence staff and as the acting principal deputy director of national intelligence, Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

DIA is the nation’s premier all-source military intelligence organization.

It provides the nation’s most authoritative assessments of foreign military intentions and capabilities. The agency’s four core competencies -- human intelligence, all-source analysis, counterintelligence and technical intelligence -- enable military operations while also informing policy-makers at the defense and national levels.

DIA’s mission is unique and no other agency matches its military expertise across such a broad range of intelligence disciplines.