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The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was a pre-War intelligence agency of the United States.

Background[]

The DIA was an external intelligence service specializing in defense and military intelligence. Monitoring foreign powers and non-state actors,[2] the ostensibly military agency evolved to be a powerful intelligence organization of the Department of Defense, operating secret facilities across the United States, especially in high tech locales like Boston. The agency worked with and included members from various branches of the U.S. military, including the U.S. Navy.[3]

Organization[]

As an intelligence agency, the DIA's activities were classified. More than that, many DIA facilities were black sites, never officially existing,[4] with numerous field caches hidden across the continental United States to aid field operatives.[5] The secrecy allowed the agency to maintain an extensive intelligence network abroad and on the domestic front, comprised of human intelligence, signals intelligence, data processing, and more.[2] To maintain secrecy, the DIA had to go to great lengths at times, such as when Slocum's Joe #38, the cover operation for The Switchboard, had to deter Lexington customers. Ever increasing customer traffic buying overpriced coffee and donuts warranted increasingly drastic measures, such as halving cleaning, deliberately misleading customers, and even deploying hydrogen sulfide.[6]

The DIA's technological capabilities were more advanced than many branches of the government.[7] The P.A.M. Initiative was one of the most ambitious, daring, and successful projects, resulting in the creation of a data processing system that allowed the agency to predict the actions of foreign entities. By crunching the vast amounts of data provided, PAM could provide analyses or suggest corrective measures to achieve specific goals. Its first major success was stabilizing the situation in the Taiwan Strait, following the Pascale Incident. After tapping it into all the military and civilian agency intelligence databanks, combined with greatly increased funding, the PAM project carried out at The Switchboard black site, PAM provided a decided edge against China in terms of intelligence.[8] As it developed, PAM was used not just to process data, but to determine the likelihood of various military scenarios playing out, such as determining the likelihood of a coordinated nuclear strike by China and the Soviet Union six months into the Chinese invasion of Alaska (June 2067).[9]

One discovery made by PAM was determining (with a 91% likelihood) the possible existence of large-scale experiments with stealth technology in December 2075 and tying it to seemingly frivolous reports of the existence of a Chinese Ghost Fleet: Stealth submarines that guaranteed retaliatory capabilities to the communist power. Due to the absence of corroborating evidence, the conclusion was buried as fantasy.[10]

While being one of the more technologically advanced government branches, the DIA still commissioned work to outside corporations, such as for the creation of the custom, multi-million dollar mainframe CRYPTOS created by RobCo. CRYPTOS was intended for use in "a top secret government project," but the DIA pulled the contract just as work was completed on the mainframe. Zack Hayes, a RobCo employee, was able to sell CRYPTOS to Frederick Rivers before the Great War to recover some of the money used to make it.[11][12]

The DIA also contracted the Vault-Tec Corporation for the development of Project SERAPH. SERAPH would have been an experimental Class-IV hypergenetic virus intended to penetrate high-security defense and intelligence mainframes.[13] The Great War occurred before the project progressed past the prototype stage, but the overseer of Vault 96, Erik DeMarcos, held onto the holotape with work on the virus. He hoped to use it to disable the vault's mainframe and let everyone escape the vault.[14] Erik worked on the virus for almost three years,[15] and after its completion, the group attempted to leave the vault. However, a superseding protocol not on the vault mainframe activated just when they thought they would actually make it out, and every remaining member of Vault 96 was killed by the vault's automated security.[16]

The DIA also deployed a series of mysterious "black boxes" throughout Appalachia, used as surveillance equipment for unknown purposes. Systems attached to these black boxes could conscript civilians to act as special DIA couriers who would send the black boxes to specific transceiver locations.[17] While the event dealing with these black boxes was cut from Fallout 76, terminal entries indicate that the black boxes were in fact deployed, and were discovered by both Sugar Grove SigInt before the War and the Appalachian Enclave after the War.[18][19]

Locations[]

Notable cases[]

Appearances[]

The Defense Intelligence Agency is mentioned in the Fallout 3 add-on Point Lookout, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76.

Behind the scenes[]

The Defense Intelligence Agency is a real-world agency and division of the United States Department of Defense. It was founded on October 1, 1961, during the Cold War, under President John F. Kennedy.

References[]

  1. Seal painted on the floor of The Switchboard
  2. 2.0 2.1 The Switchboard terminal entries; SigInt terminal #03, Hindu Kush Report
  3. 3.0 3.1 Naval recruiting center terminal entries; DIA officer's terminal
  4. Deacon: "Prepare to be shocked: not every Slocum's Joe has a massive tunnel complex underneath it. We're entering a secret Defense Intelligence Agency research lab. A place that never officially existed. It's called The Switchboard. The DIA eggheads spent their precious brain cells here trying to outwit the Red Menace. The prototype is locked up in the heart of the facility."
    (Deacon's dialogue)
  5. Jackpot (quest)
  6. The Switchboard terminal entries; terminal, Slocum's Joe Weekly Update
  7. The Sole Survivor: "Nice. That sounds pretty high tech."
    P.A.M.: "Correct. The cache belonged to the Defense Intelligence Agency. The DIA's technological capabilities were more advanced than many branches of the government. You only have to secure the cache. Runners will transport contents on a separate timetable. Terminating human/machine interface."
    (P.A.M.'s dialogue)
  8. The Switchboard terminal entries; research terminal, > Section 1091/1092 Report
  9. The Switchboard terminal entries; research terminal, > 2067 Jun 19
  10. The Switchboard terminal entries; research terminal, > 2075 Dec 17
  11. Riverside Manor terminal entries; Cryptos terminal, About CRYPTOS
  12. Riverside Manor terminal entries; Frederick's terminal, Zack Hayes, 6/15/77
  13. Vault 96 terminal entries; overseer's terminal, Project SERAPH, Executive Summary
  14. Vault 96 terminal entries; overseer's terminal, Encrypted Logs, Personal Log - 11/10/77
  15. Vault 96 terminal entries; overseer's terminal, Encrypted Logs, Personal Log - 8/31/80
  16. Vault 96 mainframe lab recording
  17. Cut content Event: The Black Box
  18. Sugar Grove terminal entries; project director's terminal, 9-8-77: Surveillance Equipment
  19. The Whitespring bunker terminal entries; military work station, RE: Black Box
  20. Turtledove Detention Camp terminal entries; terminal, Public Release: Person Of Interest
  21. Turtledove Detention Camp terminal entries; terminal, Bulletin: Yang Capture/Transfer
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