Military Intelligence Program

The United States' Military Intelligence Program (MIP) consists of programs, projects, or activities that support the U.S. Secretary of Defense’s intelligence, counterintelligence, and related intelligence responsibilities. This includes those intelligence and counterintelligence programs, projects, or activities that provide capabilities to meet warfighters’ operational and tactical requirements more effectively. The term excludes capabilities associated with a weapons system whose primary mission is not intelligence. It is overseen by the Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

The term "MIP" replaces the earlier terms "Joint Military Intelligence Program (JMIP)" and "Tactical Intelligence and Related Activities (TIARA)". JMIP included Defense-wide programs not peculiar to the needs of a specific service, while TIARA covered service-specific needs. Under the MIP are the Office of the Secretary of Defense, service departments, the U.S. Special Operations Command, and, in their roles of supporting tactical operations, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA); National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA); National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and the National Security Agency (NSA).

MIP activities are not strictly separated from national-level capabilities. Tactical Exploitation of National Intelligence Capabilities (TENCAP) gives warfighters access to data from national-level sensors. For example, national missile launch warning satellites routinely provided forces in the Gulf War with alerts of SS-1 SCUD launches. The Military Intelligence Company (Brigade Combat Team) has, as one of its missions[, providing TENCAP information at the brigade level.