U.S. SEEKS REFORMS FOR MILITARY DATA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000402700049-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 26, 2012
• Sequence Number: 49
• Publication Date: June 13, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT 1
,7 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402700049-9
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE
U.S SEEKS REFORMS.
FOR MILITARY DATA
Gaps in Intelligence Gathering
and Dissemination Ordered
Corrected by Pentagon
By RICHARD HALLORAN
Special tome New York Timm
WASHINGTON, June 12 - The Rea-
gan Administration has begun a wide-
ranging program to correct serious
deficiencies in gathering, assessing and
disseminating military intelligence, as
cording to senior Defense Department
officials.
The Deputy Secretary of Defense,
Frank C. Carlucci, a former Deputy Di-
rector of Central Intelligence, has ex-
pressed particular displeasure about
military intelligence operations and has
been a leader in insisting on reforms,
the officials say.'
Mr. Carlucci has ordered the military
services to give priority to programs,
including those in coming budgets, that
are intended to broaden the collection,
improve the analysis and speed the
transmission of intelligence of immedi-
ate use to senior field commanders, the
officials say.
Many of the new instructions to cor-
rect the deficiencies are prominent in a
plan called Defense Guidance that sets
out the Administration's marching or-
ders to the military services for the
next five yes.
'New Demands on Intelligence'
That plan, signed by Secretary of De-
fense Caspar W. Weinberger, says,
"The mounting range of threats posed
by the Soviet Union and its proxies, the
use of terrorism, and the instabilities in
a growing number of third world coun-
tries combine to place major new de-
mands on intelligence."
NEW YORK TIMES
13 JUNE 1982
It says further that new. intelligence
systems "must be designed to be as en-
during under combat conditions as the
forces supported." It also says, "Weap-
ons technology continues to advance
rapidly, necessitating major changes in
the amount and sophistication of intelli-
gence support."
The Administration officials say the
shortcomings range from the ability to
warn of Soviet preparations for nuclear
oattack to tactical intelligence for con-
ventional operations.
One senior official said that military
intelligence data were accurate but
were neither broad nor deep enough.
Another official said that one of the few
exceptions was intelligence on Soviet
submarine movements.
Survivability Is Questioned
The present intelligence apparatus,
the officials contend, evolved without
enough attention being paid to its abil-
ity to survive in conventional or nuclear
battle, to be revived quickly if key parts
were, knocked out, or to- endure under
heavy strain: .
In recent weeks different officials
have grumbled about inadequate intel-
ligence dataon the fighting in the Falk-
land Islands, Lebanon and El Salvador,
and about the military regime in Po.
land,, although none -of these directly
concern American military operations.
On the other hand, officials say they
have received good intelligence reports
on Soviet military movements around
Poland, on Soviet forces in Afghanistan,
and on deployment of Soviet SS-20
medium range missiles. Most of thq
data has been collected by satellite or
other technical means.
Administration officials say that vast
improvements in military intelligence
gathering are vital to the Administra-
tion's strategy of preparing for a world-
wide global conflict against the Soviet
Union with conventional arms or a pro-
tracted nuclear war.
. Among the changes in military strat-
egy adopted by the Administration hasp
been the speed of response to what mili-
tary planners call "ambiguous warning ",The term refers to military alerts,
troop movements, or other indications
by potential adversaries in which the in-
tent is not clear.
Better information, assessment and
transmission of intelligence data are
needed for field commanders to con-
sider and to speed up the response by
American and allied forces, military
aides say.
The Administration's goal of being
able to strike the Soviet Union or other
adversaries not only in an area of con-
flict but also at other places where
American forces would have a tactical
advantage will depend on intelligence
of high quality, officials say.
The spread of terrorism and the Ad-
ministration's plans for meeting it with
a variety of specially trained forces will
also depend on swiftly gathered, accu-
rately assessed and rapidly dissemi.
nated intelligence, they say.
As military technology and weapons
have advanced, these officials say, the
intelligence apparatus that makes the
weapons function effectively has not
kept pace. They want intelligence sup.
port to be fielded at the same time as
new weapons.
Crucial to New Nuclear Arms
That is particularly true for weapons
such as the B-1 bomber and the MX in-
tercontinental missiles. For that rea-
son, the Reagan Administration plans
to spend $18 billion to $20 billion over the
next five years on warning sensors and
improved communications to comple-
ment those weapons.
The Defense Guidance plan says,
"The communications problem is a pri-
mary deficiency in the intelligence sup-'
port to operational commanders." The
military services are directed to accel-
erate procurement of equipment to
speed "direct reporting to the opera-
tional forces from present and future
airborne and satellite collection sys-
tems."
The services are instructed to de-
velop simpler ways for commanders to
request information they need and to be
informed when they can expect the in. telligence to be obtained.
The Defense Intelligence Agency and
the Joint Chiefs of Staff are directed to
enlarge .the data base on Third World,
or developing and nonaligned nations in
which American forces might have to
opera-e.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402700049-9