The SMEs chosen to advise nations receiving DIRI support are sourced primarily from Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFDRCs), such as the Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA), and the RAND Corporation.
“An ambassador might be working with an official from a country, for example, to figure out how to do cost analysis to bring on new weapons systems,” Sanborn said.
“The ministry of defense would work with the ambassador and might say they really need help with that kind of analysis. The ambassador could then go to the State Department or DoD and advise them that the request should be worked on. The request then will be evaluated at OSD [Office of the Secretary of Defense]. They might say it’s a good idea and send a team out to see if it’s indeed needed. The team will return and then a decision will be made whether to service the request based upon whether it [the request] fits within the strategic objectives of the United States.”
Once a request is approved, DSCA resources the effort, working through the CCMR at the Naval Post-Graduate School to manage financial backing for program execution. DIRI provides good return on investment as well, said Sanborn, sending highly qualified government and civilian experts to advise foreign MoDs.
“These programs are more comprehensive than providing a capability to a country such as a weapons system or trucks,” Sanborn stressed. “Does a given ministry of defense effectively budget? Is it prepared to sustain, or plan to strategically utilize the equipment being provided to them? If you can integrate with a ministry properly before equipment is delivered to them you can make sure a country is ready to accept and be responsible for the equipment.”
Ministry of Defense Advisors (MoDA)
Developed as a result of operational requirements in Afghanistan and Iraq, MoDA is a defense capacity building effort focused on ministerial capacity building. The program adds defense civilians to the effort, augmenting military personnel and contractors.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, the program matches senior Department of Defense civilians with partner-identified requirements and provides “backfill funding” to the experts’ parent organizations. While deployed, the advisors exchange expertise with foreign counterparts in similar defense specialties.
Currently, MoDA provides 80 advisers to the Ministries of Defense and Interior in Afghanistan. DSCA undertakes management of the program, but its involvement goes beyond financial resourcing. The agency handles recruiting, training, and the care and feeding of the advisors while deployed. The experts are provided to the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan/Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan.
They go through a seven-week training program, which includes training in advisory skills, personal security and some language training and cultural awareness,” Miner explained. “It’s capped off by an intensive two-week final exercise where they’re executing engagement plans and working with live role model actors. That way, when they arrive in-country their first engagement isn’t the first time they’ve met an Afghan in that type of environment. They’re there for a year-long deployment in Kabul, advising on a range of issues depending on their skill set – from personnel and planning to budgeting and more.”
Sailors assigned to the George Washington Carrier Strike Group and citizens of the Philippines work together to load an MH-60R Seahawk helicopter from the “Saberhawks” of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 77 in support of Operation Damayan. The George Washington Strike Group was supporting Joint Task Force 505, which was assisting the Philippine government’s ongoing relief efforts in the aftermath of the Super Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Shannon Heavin
The 2012 National Defense Authorization Act expanded the MoDA program, which gave it a global authorization.
“The global program is designed for long-term engagement,” Miner said. “It’s somewhat linked with DIRI. In the ideal world, DIRI teams would engage a country and identify it as one with which we wanted to work an engagement. The DIRI team would scope the engagement and might determine that a MoDA is the way to go for part of the engagement – perhaps financial management systems development with a country. They would turn the requirement over to us and we would go out and recruit among the logistics community for people with the right skill set.”
“We have advisors in Kosovo and Montenegro right now and more ready to deploy to a handful of other countries awaiting the orders to go,” Miner said.