Introduction
The USA military created an intelligence unit during World War 1, to boost its combat activities. In 1930, USA created Signal Intelligence Service, which was the first military intelligence-gathering unit (United States Army Intelligence and Security Command, 2013). The Signal Intelligence Service has been regularly restructured to make it more efficient. From 1943, the intelligence division of the US military was called Signal Security Service. The military intelligence influenced the course of the Second World War by providing information on the military operations of both Japan and its key ally Germany (Kvasnicka, 2011, pp. 1-10).
Background of INSCOM
From 1945, SSA was called Army Security Agency. It provided control services by establishing a global surveillance system especially in Asia and Europe. In 1949, all the military intelligence units were integrated to form Armed Forces Security Agency that provided military intelligence when the USA was fighting Korea (United States Army Intelligence and Security Command, 2013).
In 1995, ASA assumed the electronic intelligence service that was formally conducted by Signal Corps. During the Vietnam War, ASA was instrumental to the USA army by proving necessary intelligence support in the battlefields (United States Army Intelligence and Security Command, 2013). The USA established a Military airborne intelligence gathering system at the beginning of the Vietnam War. It gained prominence because it was effective in gathering information. “The Army’s U-6 Beaver was one of the first platforms converted from a utility mission to take on intelligence collection efforts” (Richelson, 2011, p. 123). After the Vietnam War, the USA took serious steps to restructure its fragmented military intelligence service to make it more efficient.
At the end of World War 2, there was simmering tension between the USA and the Soviet Union. The tension between these two rival blocks created international suspicion. Thus, the USA and the Soviet Union were wary of the potential outbreak of another fierce world war. It was against this background that the USA found it imperative to step up its intelligence gathering and security systems. Consequently, at the height of the Cold War era, the USA created INSCOM to contain possible war outbreak.
Creation of INSCOM
In 1975, the USA military officials implemented the findings of a study that was carried out on the military intelligence unit. This led to a radical transformation of the USA intelligence services. Consequently, INSCOM was created in early 1977 out of the need to improve and consolidate the USA military intelligence activities. The establishment of INSCOM provided the military with a single tool to carry out multifaceted intelligence and security services and electronic combat. INSCOM uses sophisticated intelligence data compilation and analysis instruments to boost military strength of the USA army (United States Army Intelligence and Security Command, 2013).
INSCOM Fight against Terrorists
The gruesome September 11 2001 incident was keenly investigated by INSCOM to disrupt the terrorist’s machinery. “As part of the national effort, America launched a military campaign against the Taliban government in Afghanistan, the remote and backward country that Bin Laden had chosen as his base” (Aid, 2009, p. 156). INSCOM played an important role in the USA fight against the Taliban by providing intelligence services. In this case, INSCOM gathered and analyzed information on the terrorist’s networks in Southwest Asia (Sims & Gerber, 2005, pp. 45-56). The information provided by INSCOM enabled the US army to contain the terrorists operations.
References
Aid, M. (2009). The Secret Sentry. Boston: Bloomsbury Press.
Kvasnicka, D. (2011). United States Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM). New York: Prentice Hall.
Richelson, J. (2011). The US Intelligence Community. Chicago: Westview Press.
Sims, J., & Gerber, B. (2005). Transforming U.S. Intelligence. New York: Wiley.
United States Army Intelligence and Security Command. (2013). Web.