Nominee Overbaugh Pledges to Strengthen Coordination Across Defense Intelligence Enterprise

Justin Overbaugh, President Trump’s nominee to be deputy under secretary of defense for intelligence and security, told the Senate Armed Services Committee he would emphasize enterprise governance and responsiveness to combatant commanders if confirmed.

Overbaugh said he would use assessments, organizational review findings and improved collaboration to address stovepipes among Defense Intelligence agencies and to better align analytic products with warfighter needs.

Senators asked about the role of the Under Secretary’s office, commonly referred to in the hearing as INS, in coordinating agencies such as the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office and the National Security Agency. Senator Cotton said the INS should be the “central advocate” for defense intelligence priorities and pressed Overbaugh to commit to improving governance and interagency collaboration.

Overbaugh agreed. “If confirmed for this position, I would place an emphasis on ensuring that the entire defense and intelligence and security enterprise remains responsive particularly to combatant commanders and the war fighters,” he said.

Committee members discussed a GAO review mandated in last year’s NDAA examining INS authorities, roles and responsibilities. Cotton asked whether Overbaugh would use that review to inform potential organizational changes; Overbaugh said yes and cited concern about “bureaucratic intransigence.”

Several senators pushed Overbaugh on bridging Title 10 (defense) and Title 50 (intelligence) stovepipes and on improving coordination with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Overbaugh committed to working “with ODNI Gabbard and the rest of her team” and with the nominee for director referenced in the hearing, should confirmations proceed.

On operational priorities, Overbaugh emphasized actionable, data‑driven intelligence: “I would drive the enterprise to prioritize actionable intelligence, providing clear insights to support decision making from the platoon leader to the president,” he said in his opening remarks.

Senators also asked about emerging domain challenges. Overbaugh highlighted concerns about cyber threats, disinformation and space threats such as jamming and spoofing, and said he would advocate resilience, redundancy and commercial partnerships for space domain awareness.

Overbaugh acknowledged the defense intelligence enterprise has strong analytic work but said alignment, governance and leadership culture must be strengthened to ensure those agencies provide timely, integrated support to operations and acquisition decisions.

Ending: The committee solicited written follow‑up and will consider Overbaugh’s written answers and the outcome of related confirmation processes as part of its assessment.