United States Army Counterintelligence Command (ACIC) is the component of United States Army's Military Intelligence Corps that directs counterintelligence (CI) activities to detect, identify, assess, counter, exploit and/or neutralize adversarial, foreign intelligence services, terrorist organizations, and insider threats to the United States Army and United States Department of Defense.
Overview ACI Command or "ACIC" is the one organization in the Army that has a sole mission of counterintelligence although it is not yet specifically designated by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, as a "Military Department CI Organization" or "MDCO" (likely due to the applicable DoD Instruction not receiving a revision since ACIC stood up). The MDCO for the Army is currently defined more broadly as simply Army Counterintelligence (ACI), despite ACIC having the bulk of the CI mission and being the only "full-spectrum" CI entity within the Department of the Army. The Navy and Air Force have specific organizations designated as DoD MDCO's: Department of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI) and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). Special Agents of ACI have full law enforcement authority within its military jurisdiction associated with its counterintelligence mission which includes conducting national security criminal investigations in conjunction with other CI activities. Other CI entities within the DoD not recognized as MDCOs, such as Marine Corps Counterintelligence and the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) have no direct criminal investigative mission and therefore are designated only as "intelligence" or "security" organizations; although they may assist in such investigations in a non-law enforcement capacity as authorized by Executive Order 12333 and applicable regulations. ACI Special Agents are U.S. Army personnel, either military or civilian, who are trained and appointed to conduct CI investigations and operations for the U.S. Army and DoD. To enable their law enforcement role federal law enforcement, they are issued badges and credentials and have apprehension authority under the Uniform Code of Military Justice with regards to U.S. Army Service Members and certain civilians in overseas environments. On 23 December 2024 the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was signed into law, becoming Public Law 118-159. The FY25 NDAA authorized a change to 10 USC 7377 which expands civilian ACIC Special Agents' existing Federal Law Enforcement Authority and provides statutory authority under U.S. Code to make/execute arrests and serve warrants pertaining to civilian or service member investigative subjects. ACI Special Agents specialize in the investigation of national security crimes committed by Army service members, civilians, contractors, dependents and other DoD personnel. These crimes include treason, spying, espionage, sedition, subversion, sabotage or assassination directed by foreign governments/actors, and support to (and acts of) international terrorism. ACI Special Agents do not have jurisdiction over general criminal matters, which are investigated by the United States Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID). However, due to the new statutory authorities granted to civilian ACIC agents, should a crime outside of national security crimes be connected to a CI investigation, ACIC Agents now have authority to obtain warrants and conduct arrests for those crimes under the umbrella of the CI investigations (within the scope outlined in their agency policies and regulations). In other branches of the U.S. military, both general criminal and counterintelligence investigations are performed by the same entity, as seen with AFOSI and NCIS who are also identified as "Defense Criminal Investigative Organizations." The Army continues to keep these investigative activities separate via ACI and CID, although parallel and joint investigations happen periodically between these two U.S. Army agencies. Most operational ACI Special Agents today work under the auspices of the United States Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) with ACIC responsible for CI activities and operating Regions, Field Offices, and Resident Agencies world-wide in addition to managing all investigative activity through the Army CI Coordinating Authority (ACICA). Additionally, outside the continental U.S., other units with ACI agents currently provide additional theater-specific CI support to U.S. Army elements, such as the 500th Military Intelligence Brigade covering INDOPACOM areas such as Hawaii and Japan, the 501st Military Intelligence Brigade covering South Korea, the 66th Military Intelligence Brigade covering EUCOM, 470th Military Intelligence Brigade covering South America, and the 513th Military Intelligence Brigade covering the greater Middle East. The 650th Military Intelligence Group covers NATO missions in applicable countries under Allied Command Counterintelligence or "ACCI." Other U.S. Army elements also have ACI Special Agents assigned to provide direct support to units/organizations, such as those found within the various elements of Special Operations.
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