U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command
The U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) was organized at Arlington HallStation, Virginia, on January 1, 1977 with the mission of performing the Army's multi-discipline intelligence operations at Echelons Above Corps (EAC). The major building blocks used to form the command consisted of the headquarters and fixed installations of the Army Security Agency; the U. S. Army Intelligence Agency,a counterintelligence and human intelligence organization headquartered at Fort George G. Meade; and a number of intelligence production agencies previously subordinated to the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence and the U.S. Army Forces Command. INSCOM also asumed command of three military intelligence groups located overseas: the 66th MI Group in Germany, the 470th MI Group in Panama, and the 500th MI Group in Japan. These groups were augmented with assets previously asigned to the Army Security Agency, and a fourth such multi-discipline unit, the 501st MI Group, was soon activated in Korea. On October 1, 1977, the former USAINTA headquarters was integrated into INSCOM, and on January 1,1978, the command established a unified production element, the Intelligence and Threat Analysis Center.
The command soon began to expand. It absorbed additional elements previously directly controlledby the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, assuming command of the U.S. Army Russian Institute in1978 and of the Special Security Group in 1980. INSCOM organized new field stations at Kunia, Hawaii,and Galeta Island, Panama. In 1982, another multi-disipline military intelligence group, the 513th, was activated at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey to support Army contingency operations. On the other hand,INSCOM temporarily withdrew from the intelligence production arena in 1985, when the Intelligence and Threat Analysis Center was resubordinated to a new Army Intelligence Agency under the direct control of ACSI. Beginning in 1986, its theater military intelligence groups were redesignated as MI brigades; a little later, certain fixed installations were redesignated as numbered brigades or battalions. These changes improved troop esprit and morale, and identified INSCOM more closely with the rest of the Army.
The end of the Cold War, the dissolution of the Soviet threat (and the Soviet Union), and the consequent downsizing of the Army brought about major realignments within the command. Three major fixedinstallations in the European Command's Area of Responsibility were discontinued. The Army Intelligence Agency was discontinued, and lNSCOM once more became engaged in intelligence production. At the same time, American involvement in a series of regional crises not only saw INSCOM personnel committed to bothcombat and humanitarian operations, but brought about further restructuring of the command. As a result of new operational concepts derived partially from the Army's experiences in the Persian Gulf War, INSCOM set up a Regional SIGINT Operations Center at Fort Gordon, Georgia, took over command of Bad Aibling Station in Germany, and created Corps Military Intelligence Support Elements to bring about a seamless flow of intelligence throughout the Army. To integrate all land warfare intelligence production activities, a provisional National Ground Intelligence Center was organized. Additionally, to meet Army needs in what was rapidly becoming an information age, the command created a Land Information Warfare Activity.Finally, as a result of a new emphasis on joint operations throughout the Department of Defense, the command prepared to turn over its human intelligence to a new Defense HUMINT Agency in late 1995.
U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command