The blue and golden yellow found in the Air Intelli-gence Agency insignia are associated with the sky and the sun respectively, with yellow denoting the standard of excellence upheld by its personnel. A globe is a reminder of the Air Force’s Global Reach and Global Power mission, while the key is an image commonly associated with military intelligence and its goal of unlocking enemy secrets. Four teeth on the key represent the four types of intelligence collection: HUMINT, IMINT, MASINT, and SIGINT. The chess knight is an emblem of counterintelligence and the ability to use military intelligence in oblique ways, while the compass rose stands for the worldwide reach of intelligence operations.
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The United States Air Force Air Intelligence Agency was a precursor to what is today designated the 25th Air Force, the branch’s primary military intelligence organization, and was the second iteration of the United States Air Force Security Service (USAFSS). Established on 20 October 1948, the USAFSS was initially responsible for communications security and cryptology. During the Korean War and in Vietnam, the USAFSS collected signal, photographic, and radar intelligence and installed communications and radar system in forward operating areas in Southeast Asia as well as in Europe and the Middle East.
In 1979, the USAFSS was redesignated as the Electronic Security Command (ESC) to reflect its increasing use of electronic warfare technologies, and in the mid-1980s began to incorporate computer security into its mission. The ESC became the Air Force Intelligence Command (AFIC) in October 1991 as part of a move to merge various Air Force intelligence operations and functions into a single entity. Among the responsibilities of the consolidated command were electronic warfare, military intelligence, computer and communications security, and treaty monitoring through reconnaissance and surveillance.
Two year later, the AFIC was reorganized as the Air Intelligence Agency (AIA), a designation it retained until June 2007. In addition to deploying to support NATO operations in the Balkans during the Bosnian and Kosovo War, the AIA also supported combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of the War on Terror and Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. It was succeeded by the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency, which in turn became the 25th Air Force in 2014.