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by Michael E. Bigelow, INSCOM Command Historian
On March 24, 1995, Lt. Gen. Paul Menoher, Army deputy chief of staff for intelligence (DCSINT), and Brig. Gen. Trent Thomas, commanding general, U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM), signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Army’s deputy chief of staff for operations (DCSOPS) and the Army’s director of information systems for command, control, communications, and computers (DISC4). Known as the “Triad MOU” in reference to its three components—intelligence, operations, and information systems—the document delineated the mission for the Land Information Warfare Activity (LIWA) and paved the way for its activation six weeks later.
The Triad MOU was the result of more than a year of concerted effort at INSCOM. In 1991, Operation DESERT STORM had shown that the U.S. military could cripple an enemy by depriving it of accurate information while, at the same time, preventing it from communicating with its own forces. By March 1993, the Joint Chiefs of Staff had developed this concept into a new kind of war: command and control warfare, sometimes called information warfare. In early February 1994, then-Maj. Gen. Menoher, Thomas’s predecessor at INSCOM, hosted a two-star symposium on this new type of war. The conference participants recommended the Army create a coordinating center for this new function; Menoher suggested INSCOM be the home for this center. He argued that his command could leverage its special relationship with the National Security Agency and the Navy’s and Air Force’s service cryptologic agencies. In June, Gen. John Tilelli, the Army vice chief of staff, agreed and, four months later, a general officer steering group approved the activation of a small organization within INSCOM.
While the senior leadership worked the broad concept, General Menoher and INSCOM hammered out the practical details. Even before General Tilelli’s approval, Menoher had established a small information warfare cell of about a dozen individuals under INSCOM’s operations division. On 1 May, he appointed Col. Michael Tanksley as its first director and tasked him to develop a concept of operations for the new organization. Over the next year, Tanksley evolved a concept of a small, centrally located operational element that would flow out horizontally to use the necessary assets of various organizations within the Army. This method precluded the need for INSCOM to maintain a large organization and better allowed the group to respond to specific needs in the field. As Colonel Tanksley noted, “The Army's expertise is scattered around in small pockets. This [concept] allows us to pull the expertise together in a packet and push it forward.”
This preparation paid off when Menoher, now the Army’s DCSINT, and Thomas signed the MOU in March 1995. The memorandum delineated LIWA’s mission as providing information warfare operational support to the land component and separate Army commands and to facilitate planning and execution of information operations. It also recognized the concept of LIWA sending out tailored forward support teams. In addition, the organization tripled in size to 38 personnel (26 military and 12 civilians).
With the MOU signed, INSCOM continued to press on LIWA’s maturation. On May 8, 1995, the Army formally activated LIWA as a separate organization under INSCOM’s command.
| Date Taken: | 03.21.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 03.21.2022 14:33 |
| Story ID: | 416857 |
| Location: | FORT HUACHUCA, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 147 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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