The Army recently named two new assignments in major intelligence roles, including a new commander for the service’s top intel organization and a new Army presence at the National Security Agency.
Maj. Gen. Gary Johnston has been assigned as commanding general of Army Intelligence and Security Command, located at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Johnston heads to U.S. Army Intelligence & Security Command from his previous dual-hat role as deputy chief of staff for intelligence for Resolute Support Mission at NATO and director/J-2 for U.S. Forces-Afghanistan under Operation Freedom’s Sentinel.
Prior to his Afghanistan assignment, he served as director of intelligence/J-2 at Special Operations Command. He’s also got INSCOM experience already – he previously served as deputy commanding general.
Johnston will replace Maj. Gen. Christopher Ballard, who earlier in April was assigned as deputy director of NSA’s signals intelligence directorate at Fort Meade, Maryland. Ballard had served as INSCOM commander since 2016.
At INSCOM Ballard oversaw all things Army intelligence, including the potential for remote drone operations, C4ISRNET previously reported.
“To the extent that that has been successful for the other services or Joint Special Operations community, we need to see if that kind of a construct will work for us,” Ballard told C4ISRNET last fall. “If we can gain some efficiencies without losing capability by doing it, we’re all ears.”
