Christine Thropp
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, was recognized as a 2023 Wash100 Award winner for his leadership in providing defense organizations and allies with actionable intelligence to inform national policy and decision making efforts.
This marks the lieutenant general’s debut on Executive Mosaic’s Wash100, an annual list of the top 100 leaders from the government contracting community.
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Berrier received Senate confirmation to become DIA director in August 2020 and has since then led the agency in delivering strategic, operational and tactical defense Intelligence to warfighters, military planners, lawmakers and allies to support policy making and joint force operations.
In 2022, Berrier appeared before the respective armed services committees of the House and Senate to present DIA’s global security environment assessment and help Congress find ways to address threats to the United States.
The DIA director– early in his speech for the agency’s 2022 Worldwide Threat Assessment– underscored the intensifying strategic competition among the U.S. China, Russia, Iran and North Korea due to the other nations’ continued force modernization efforts.
“The United States faces challenges from competitors who have and are developing new capabilities intended to challenge, limit, or exceed U.S. military advantage,” he said. “The threats those capabilities pose span all warfighting domains—maritime, land, air/air defense, electronic warfare, cyberspace, information, and space/counterspace.”
Berrier also noted the issues the U.S. faces in South Asia following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, and the challenges posed by modernization of adversarial military capabilities through rapidly evolving technologies, artificial intelligence, special material advances, high-performance computing, robotics and biotechnology.
In his closing statement, he expressed hope that the DIA report and the hearing could assist the committees in identifying responses to national threats.
DIA also released the Challenges to Security in Space – 2022 report that details a more than 70 percent increase in the combined in-orbit satellite fleets of Russia and China from 2019 and 2021. The study shows that the two nations added space and counterspace capabilities to their combat strategies to advance their militarization of the space domain, which could threaten space assets of the U.S. and allies.
“The loss of space-based communication and navigation services could have a devastating impact on warfighters during a conflict — that’s one of the most serious scenarios anticipated. A secure, stable and accessible space domain is crucial as China and Russia’s space-based capabilities and electronic-warfare activities continue to grow,” said Berrier.
Under Berrier’s leadership, DIA also works on enhancing its delivery of cyber intelligence to combatant commands around the world. The agency looks to partner with the Cyber Command to provide intelligence support to cyber ops in both defensive and offensive fronts.
Other DIA focus areas in the previous year and the one ahead include continued talks with officials from Ukraine to reinforce ties between the two countries, and the release of an artificial intelligence strategy amid challenges in talent development faced by the agency and other defense organizations.
Berrier has been leading DIA since 2020. His other notable assignments include serving as director of the Central Command from 2011 to 2014, commanding general of the Army Intelligence Center of Excellence and Fort Huachuca from 2015 to 2017, and special assistant to the director of the Army Staff within the Office of the Chief of Staff. Prior to his current post, he was the deputy chief of staff of the Army.
Executive Mosaic congratulates Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier and the DIA organization for their selection to receive the 2023 Wash100 Award.
Don’t forget to cast votes for your favorite GovCon leaders at Wash100.com! Competition for the Popular Vote rankings runs until April 28.
