Defense Intelligence Agency Contemplates Austerity

Since 2001, intelligence agencies have had just about all money they wanted, but not anymore, as the cuts mandated by the Budget Control Act are hitting even previously inviolable spook accounts.

In a reflection of this new reality, the Defense Intelligence Agency plans a conference with industry at its Darth Vader building headquarters on June 27. Agency leaders will focus on “current and emerging challenges in the context of an increasingly austere fiscal posture.”

It’s hard to determine the exact level of austerity DIA faces, as its 2014 budget request is buried in the overall $14.6 billion military intelligence budget request, a 32 percent drop from $21.5 billion in 2012.

That’s still a lot of money.