2024 NDAA Requires Intelligence Community to Establish Innovation Unit

The Intelligence Community will be asked to create a new agency responsible for identifying technologies and capabilities that can allow the organization to address mission needs.

Under the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, the director of national intelligence is required to set up an “Intelligence Community Innovation Unit,” an organization akin to the Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit that provides technology expertise and kickstarts the process of turning prototypes into production. Lawmakers expect the envisioned IC innovation unit to communicate technology needs with the private sector.

The DNI must submit plans for the innovation unit within 180 days of the NDAA being signed into law. The DNI will also have the same amount of time to establish the organization, Federal News Network reported.

The IC has been implementing emerging technologies in recent months alongside other agencies.

In September, the CIA announced that it is preparing to roll out a generative artificial intelligence tool that supports analysis through open-source data. CIA Director Randy Nixon said the tool would provide original sources of information to operators across the IC, helping accelerate intelligence distribution.

In July, DOD and the IC signed an agreement to share cloud capabilities in a classified environment.