Defense Information Systems Agency
The Defense Information Systems Agency, known as the Defense Communications Agency until 1991, is a United States Department of Defense combat support agency. It is composed of military, federal civilians, and contractors. DISA provides information technology and communications support to the President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense, the Department of Defense, the combatant commands, and any individual or system contributing to the defense of the United States.
History
1960s: The Defense Communications Agency
DCA was established May 12, 1960, with the primary mission of operational control and management of the Defense Communications System.The initial headquarters for 34 DCA members was Wake Hall, one of a complex of three buildings on the site where the parking lot of the Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington, D.C., stands today. Navy Rear Admiral William D. Irvin became the first DCA director in July. In September, Rear Admiral Irvin moved his staff to office space in Building 12 at the Naval Services Center, 701 Courthouse Road, Arlington, Va., the site of the U.S. Navy's old Radio Arlington Station.
DCA's first major tasks were to identify the DCS elements and develop an implementation and management plan. The DCS was essentially a collection of communications systems turned over by the military departments with considerable restrictions. Key among these responsibilities was the establishment of three common-user, defense-wide networks that would be known as the Automatic Voice Network, the Automatic Digital Network, and the Automatic Secure Voice Communications Network. For each, DCA sought to determine its overall system configuration and prepare the technical specifications necessary for the equipment for switching centers, interconnecting transmission media, and subscriber terminals.
With the arrival of the space-age, DCA was designated as the “strong focal point” for development, integration, and operation of the space and ground elements of a number of satellite-based communications initiatives. The most important of these would be the DCA-managed Defense Satellite Communications System.
DARPA began planning for a truly strategic geosynchronous communication system in 1958, assigning the Air Force Ballistic Missile Division responsibility for the booster and spacecraft and the Army Signal Corps the communications element. Initially consisting of three repeater satellite programs, in September 1959 the secretary of defense transferred responsibility for communications satellite management from DARPA to the Army. In February 1960, the three programs were combined into Project Advent, which was assigned to the Army in September that year. However, the Army would not have operational responsibility for military satellite communications, as the Defense Department was unifying the strategic communications systems of the Army, Navy, and Air Force as part of the Defense Communications System, operated by the Defense Communications Agency, which was established on 12 May 1960. Project Advent was considered to be a very ambitious program, with the first tranche of satellites launched into 5,600 mile inclined orbits by Air Force Ballistic Missile Division Atlas-Agena launch vehicles, with the second tranche launched into geostationary orbits by AFBMD Atlas-Centaurs. Given cost overruns and technological breakthroughs in smaller satellites, Project Advent was cancelled on 23 May 1962.
The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 showed the need for direct, timely, and private communications between the leaders of the world's two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. A duplex cable circuit between the two capitals known as the Moscow–Washington hotline or "Red Telephone", became operational August 30, 1963. Program management and engineering for the “Hotline” was assigned to DCA. The system continues intact today with direct links to more than 40 foreign leaders. Another direct result of the Cuban Missile Crisis was the creation of the Worldwide Military Command and Control System to enable national command authorities to exercise effective command and control of their widely dispersed forces.
While DCA dealt with the communication crises of the Cold War, a “hot war” was waging in Southeast Asia. America's commitment to South Vietnam led to the creation of a DCA Southeast Asia Region unit in 1964. DCA developed a plan to integrate the region's communication systems into a single modern network. The system would extend the commercial-quality communications provided by satellites and cables to the battlefield.
1970s
DCA assumed responsibility for the Minimum Essential Emergency Communications Network, a subsystem of WWMCCS, in December 1971. The MEECN was developed to assure the timely receipt of emergency action messages by worldwide U.S. nuclear forces under nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. DCA served as the MEECN system engineer and provided the broad engineering necessary to ensure a more survivable future network with compatible, interoperable, and secure subsystems.In the late 1960s and early 1970s DCA, through its NMCS Technical Support Directorate, had responsibility for the technical support, planning, and system engineering for the four command centers then comprising the NMCS. These were the NMCC and the National Emergency Airborne Command Post, the Alternate National Military Command Center, and the National Emergency Command Post Afloat. DCA performed the requirements collection and analysis, system engineering, funding estimation, subsystem project plan development, and establishment of the initial physical architecture for the expansion of the NMCC that was implemented by the Air Force in the 1970s.
A DoD directive issued in the early 1970s appointed DCA as the system architect for all defense satellite communications. A major new DCA headquarters staff directorate, the Military Satellite Communications System Office, was created to discharge the new role. As the system architect, DCA coordinated all defense satellite communications planning and programs to avoid duplication and ensure communications interoperability among the diverse systems serving the complete spectrum of defense needs.
1980s
The momentum of major improvements in national security telecommunications accelerated rapidly in the 1980s. Along with the unprecedented peacetime military build-up under the Reagan Administration came the proliferation of government-owned and government-leased networks and a high emphasis on interoperability among the military services. The pace of technological advancement brought with it new opportunities for system improvements.The desire for interoperability in military communications did not originate in the 1980s. The need for communications systems that talked to each other within an individual military service and among the services together went back to the needs generated by the global proportions of WWII. Indeed, it was the lack of interoperability that drove the Eisenhower administration to seek one organization to pull together the services’ disparate systems to speak with one voice – that organization was DCA. But interoperability still had yet to be achieved by the 1980s.
In April 1986, the assistant secretary of defense for command and control, communications and intelligence proposed the consolidation of DCA and the Joint Tactical Command, Control, and Communications Agency in view of the “climate within DoD of streamlining and reducing overhead functions.” The Joint Staff endorsed the proposal because it also provided some operational efficiency.
In January 1987, the secretary of defense approved the consolidation of DCA and JTC3A. A year later, DCA absorbed the Tri-Service Tactical Communications Joint Test Element and JTC3A Joint Operability Test Facility. DCA consolidated these organizations into a new organization in 1989, establishing the Joint Interoperability Test Command at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. JITC provided the facility for DoD and private-sector interoperability compliance testing and certification.
In October 1989, the deputy secretary of defense established a DoD Corporate Information Management Initiative to identify and implement management efficiencies in DoD information systems. DCA was given responsibility for implementing the CIM initiative, and its mission was expanded to include information support to the JCS and Office of the Secretary of Defense, tactical information system standards and interoperability, and White House information systems.
1990s
In 1990 and 1991, during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, a team of planners, engineers, and operators from DCA's Defense Network Systems Organization assisted in the design of a semi-fixed telecommunications system, the Southwest Asia Telecommunications for use in support of the theater commander's operations. SATS included satellite, microwave, copper cable, and fiber optic links; Defense Data Network packet-switching nodes; Defense Switched Network multi-function voice switches; and technical control facilities. At their peak, these systems included more than 100 satellite links.On June 25, 1991, DCA underwent a major reorganization and was renamed the Defense Information Systems Agency to reflect its expanded role in implementing the DoD's CIM initiative and to clearly identify DISA as a combat support agency. DISA established the Center for Information Management to provide technical and program execution assistance to the assistant secretary of defense and technical products and services to DoD and military components.
DISA's role in DoD information management continued to expand with implementation of several Defense Management Report Decisions, most notably DMRD 918, in September 1992. DMRD 918 created the Defense Information Infrastructure and directed DISA to manage and consolidate the Services’ and DoD's information processing centers into 16 mega-centers. During the 1990s, DISA fielded new systems to support the combatant commands. The Global Command and Control System and the Joint Chiefs’ C4I for the Warrior, and the Defense Message System were among the critical systems. GCCS was developed to replace WWMCCS, which had been in existence since the early 1960s.