Office of Technology and Assessments (VCI/TA)

Mission Statement

The Office of Technology and Assessments (TA) is responsible for technological and analytical support to the Verification, Compliance, and Implementation (VCI) Bureau on a broad range of missions associated with verification and compliance issues. In this regard, VCI/TA is responsible for assisting in the coordination of National Means and Methods (NMM) to support the collection and analysis of data to detect the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and the means of their delivery. In addition, the Office is responsible for providing analytical assessments on WMD and the means of their delivery to support verification and compliance issues.

The Office supports the VCI Bureau Assistant Secretary’s responsibilities as the principal policy liaison to the Intelligence Community (IC) on all verification and compliance matters. These responsibilities include representing the VCI Bureau on boards, committees and working groups to articulate requirements for collection and analysis of data to verify compliance with arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament agreements and commitments. In an effort to coordinate technologies supporting NMM, the VCI/TA Office works with the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Energy (DOE), and the IC to ensure that critical sensor systems are properly researched, developed, funded, operated and deployed to detect and identify WMD and the means of their delivery.

VCI/TA is also responsible for maintaining expert knowledge on the methodologies used to exploit data from a wide variety of sensor programs, and to assemble the resultant data into analytical assessments of WMD and the means of their delivery to support verification and compliance objectives.
The Office interacts with experts from relevant government organizations, particularly the IC, the DOE and the DoD to achieve its mission in the following representative areas:

• Provide expert knowledge of collection systems and the exploitation of the resultant data to support verification and compliance requirements.

• Promote the research and development of promising new technologies and procedures that have the potential of addressing arms control and nonproliferation needs (Verification Assets Fund).

• Represent the VCI Bureau at interagency meetings that address the operation, tasking and deployment of NMM.

• Advocate and support the retention of NMM that are critical in verifying arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament treaties, agreements, and commitments.

• Develop and maintain matrices on collection and exploitation methodologies that address verification responsibilities to identify gaps and shortfalls.

• Promote a signatures program to construct a national database to assist in identifying and locating WMD.