About DTIC
DTIC's mission is " to preserve, curate, and share knowledge from DoD's annual multi-billion dollar investment in science and technology, multiplying the value and accelerating capability to the warfighter"
The Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC®) has served the information needs of the defense community for more than 75 years.
As a Department of Defense (DoD) Field Activity, DTIC operates under the leadership of the Secretary of Defense and reports to the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering USD(R&E). DTIC supports the USD(R&E)'s efforts to mitigate new and emerging threat capabilities, enable affordable or extended capabilities in existing military systems, and develop technology surprise through engineering by:
- Preserving and disseminating the research that led to the technologies our warfighters use today;
- Delivering the tools and collections that empower the research and engineering enterprise to accelerate the development of technologies that will help maintain our nation's technical superiority;
- Stimulating innovation by providing access to DoD-funded research and digital data to the public and industry; and
- Maximizing the value of each dollar the DoD spends through the analysis of funding, work-in-progress, and Independent Research and Development (IR&D) data to identify gaps, challenges and way forward.
These areas of responsibility support USD(R&E) in their efforts to mitigate new and emerging threat capabilities, enable affordable new or extended capabilities in existing military systems, and develop technology surprise through science and engineering.
More than 50 percent of the research records in DTIC's collection are available through the R&E Gateway - an access-controlled knowledge management repository available to authorized DoD personnel, defense contractors, federal government personnel, government contractors, and select academic institutions. The R&E Gateway requires Common Access Card (CAC) login or registration. Access to unclassified, unlimited information, including many full-text, downloadable documents are available to the general public through this website.
DTIC also manages the Information Analysis Centers which provide essential technical analysis and data support to a diverse customer base that spans the Combatant Commands (CCMDs), the Office of the Secretary of Defense, defense agencies, and the military services. The IACs actively partner and collaborate with defense research and engineering focus groups and communities of interest in cyber, homeland defense and defense systems. They are staffed with scientists, engineers and information specialists who provide research and analysis to customers with diverse, complex and challenging requirements.
Established in June 1945 as the Air Documents Research Center (ADRC), the agency’s original mission was to collect German air documents. The documents collected were divided into three categories: those that would assist the war in the Pacific theater, those of immediate intelligence interest to the United States or British forces, and those of interest for future research.
In 1945, the ADRC relocated its operations in London, United Kingdom to the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (AFB) in Dayton, Ohio where it was renamed Air Documents Division (ADD). The ADD staff cataloged captured documents and translated a small number of reports deemed as high-priority research.
In 1948, the secretaries of the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force reorganized ADD into the Central Air Documents Office (CADO), broadened its mission to include collecting, processing and disseminating information for use within military regulations. The organization has since evolved—in name and mission—to become the central resource for DoD- and government-funded scientific, technical, engineering and business related information for the DoD community.
