CIA's relationship with the United States Military

The Central Intelligence Agency needs to liaise with the United States Armed Forces, and a range of organizational structures have been used since the formation of the CIA to facilitate this liaison.

National Intelligence Support Team

A NIST normally is composed of personnel from DIA, NSA, NIMA, and the CIA who are deployed upon request by the military commander to facilitate the flow of timely all-source intelligence between a Joint Task Force (JTF) and Washington, DC, during crises or contingency operations. ^[1]

Bureaucratic structure

Associate Deputy Director of Operations for Military Affairs (ADDO/MA)

This position 'faded off the org chart' after the creation of the ADCI/MS c. 1995 ^[2]

Associate Director of Central Intelligence for Military Support (ADCI/MS)
or Associate Director of Military Support ^[3]
or Assistant Director for Military Support ^[4]
and finally, Associate Director for Military Affairs

This position was created by CIA Director John Deutch in 1995 ^[5] He called it the 'Associate Director for Military Affairs' in a report in 1996, ^[6] but that name was not used until the late 1st decade of the 21st century in official documents, like org charts, and the 110th congress DoD appropriations bill says that Title IX Subtitle D will undergo changes "necessitated by the redesignation of the CIA's Assistant Director for Military Support as the Associate Director for Military Affairs." ^[7]

Office of Military Affairs

• 1992 - Created by CIA after problems during the Gulf War ^[8]
• 1995/1996 - Moved out of the Directorate of Operations by ADCI/MS Dennis C. Blair, to be directly under his office, which reported directly to the Director ^[9]

OMA is staffed by CIA and military personnel. As the agency's single POC for military support, OMA negotiates, coordinates, manages, and monitors all aspects of agency support for military operations. This support is a continuous process that can be enhanced or modified to respond to a crisis or developing operation. Interaction between OMA and the DCI representatives to the OSD, the Joint Staff, and the combatant commands facilitates the provision of national-level intelligence in support of joint operations, operation planning, and exercises. ^[10]

List of associate directors for military affairs

No.	Portrait	Name	Term of office			Service branch	Ref.
			Took office	Left office	Time in office
		Vice Admiral Dennis C. Blair	1995	1996	ayd	United States Navy	[11]
		Lieutenant General John A. Gordon	1996	1997		United States Air Force	[12]
		Lieutenant General John H. Campbell	2000	2003		United States Air Force	[13]
		Vice Admiral Albert Calland III	2004	2005		United States Navy
		Major General John T. Brennan	2006	2008		United States Air Force	[14]
		Lieutenant General Mark A. Welsh III	2008	2010		United States Air Force	[15]
		Lieutenant General Kurt A. Cichowski	2010	2013		United States Air Force
-		Lieutenant General Raymond A. Thomas III	2013	2014	1 year, 0 days	United States Army
-		Lieutenant General John F. Mulholland Jr.	January 9, 2015	October 4, 2016	1 year, 269 days	United States Army
-		Vice Admiral P. Gardner Howe III	October 4, 2016	November 8, 2019	3 years, 35 days	United States Navy
-		Vice Admiral Colin J. Kilrain	November 8, 2019	October 20, 2021	1 year, 346 days	United States Navy
-		Lieutenant General John D. Caine	November 3, 2021	December 2, 2024	3 years, 29 days	United States Air Force
-		Lieutenant General Michael L. Downs	December 2, 2024	Incumbent	85 days	United States Air Force

Notes

1. National Intelligence Support Teams, cia.gov
2. Garthoff, Ch 13 footnote 4
3. The New Team - Dennis C. Blair, New York Times, 2009 May 5
4. "P.L. 110-417, The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009". Archived from the original on 2009-02-01. Retrieved 2009-05-15.
5. Garthoff, Chapter 13, and 1997 factbook on intelligence, CIA
6. See Deutch, 1996
7. See Organizational structure of the Central Intelligence Agency, section on organizational charts. See also the 110th congress senate bill S.3001 Archived 2008-11-27 at the Wayback Machine
8. CIA Support.. 1997
9. Garthoff, Chapter 13, footnote 4
10. Joint and National Support to Military Operations, 2004, pg 165 of pdf
11. Garthoff, ch 13. and see Feinstein's Nomination (~2 years)
12. President Nominates Blair, Gordon to DoD Posts, American Forces Press Service, 1996 May 2
13. "Release".
14. See Message from the director.. 2008 7 10, calling Brennan the ADMA, and then Photochart, late 2008, still calling him the ADCI/MS
15. Message from the director.. 2008 7 10

References

• Mike Hayden, Director CIA (2008-07-10). "Message from the Director: Associate Director for Military Affairs". Archived from the original on January 14, 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-14.
• John Deutch, Director CIA (1996). "The Intelligence Community" . Retrieved 2009-05-14.
• Douglas F. Garthoff. "Directors of Central Intelligence as Leaders of the U.S. Intelligence Community 1946–2005". Center for the Study of Intelligence, CIA. Archived from the original on February 24, 2014. Retrieved 2009-05-14.
• CIA (16 June 1997). "CIA Support to the US Military During the Persian Gulf War". Archived from the original on June 13, 2007. Retrieved 2009-05-14.
• June Lee, Editorial Associate (August 2008). "Photochart of USAF Leadership, An Air Force Magazine Directory" (PDF). Air Force Magazine. Retrieved 2009-05-14.
• Joint Chiefs of Staff (2004-10-07). "Joint and National Intelligence Support to Military Operations" (PDF). defense technical information center. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-12-06. Retrieved 2009-05-14.