Navy struggles to fill new ISR positions

Navy struggles to fill new ISR positions
By Ben Iannotta - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Nov 23, 2009 14:11:06 EST

The Navy has been planning to establish a bureaucratically powerful “information dominance” organization since at least June, but a service document shows that key ISR positions within the new group remained unfilled shortly before its Nov. 2 official start-up.

Filling the positions may have been complicated by “the need to fill high priority overseas contingency operations billets,” said Navy spokesman Lt. Myers Vasquez. As of Nov. 23, one director billet and two branch chief positions remained to be filled, he added.

The new Information Dominance (N2/N6) organization based in the Pentagon is supposed to “deliver deep multi-intelligence penetration” and coordinate “resource investment” into Navy unmanned systems, space sensors, networks and cyber security, according to an internal Navy administrative notice. The organization merges the responsibilities of the Navy’s N2 intelligence operations staff with those of the N6 communications and network staff.

As of Oct. 30, the Navy had not filled some key positions, including a director for the ISR capabilities directorate; a director for the cyber, sensors and electronic warfare directorate; a senior intelligence analyst; and a branch head for human intelligence within the intelligence analysis, collection and operations directorate.

The organizational structure is outlined in a 33-page document provided to Navy Times. Eight of 27 top positions listed on the document are described as vacant.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/11/isr_navy_n2n6_112309/