On Dec. 2, 1974, Defense Intelligence Agency director Army Lt. General Daniel O. Graham appointed the first group of Defense Intelligence Officers (DIOs). DIOs are senior intelligence experts who functioned as the director’s senior advisors on key intelligence issues and shape DIA’s input to national intelligence products. Each DIO was responsible for a specific geographic or functional area. The first six DIO areas of expertise reflected the agency’s strategic priorities at the time: strategic weapons and strategic arms limitation; European and Soviet political/military affairs; Soviet general purpose forces; Southeast Asia; the Middle East and South Asia; and Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Today, DIOs are responsible for driving integration across intelligence functions; focusing and leading defense intelligence support to senior customers in the Department of Defense, the Intelligence Community, and other elements of the executive and legislative branches of government; shaping analytic engagement strategies with foreign partners; and posturing defense intelligence to meet future requirements and challenges by advising on resource priorities. Current DIO mission areas include Africa, Europe, East Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, Eurasia, South Asia, Cyber, and Scientific and Technical Intelligence.
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.