The Dagger Complex is a US military base in

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

(

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

), close to Griesheim and located at the ''Eberstädter Weg'', south of the August-Euler-Airfield. The complex is under US Army

Intelligence and Security Command The United States Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) is a direct reporting unit that conducts intelligence, security, and information operations for United States Army commanders, partners in the Intelligence Community, and nati ...

(INSCOM) command on behalf of the US

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collectio ...

(NSA) and is officially known as Subunit 1 operated by USMC G Company. After a large basement expansion at the complex in 2002 it hosted an important

SIGINT Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of '' signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ...

processing, analysis and reporting center. As the entire SIGINT unit relocated to the Lucius D.Clay Barracks at

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

in 2016 as part of the new Information Processing Center (IPC) which is part of the US Consolidated Intelligence Center (CIC), which was brought into operation in the 2010s, the status of the Dagger complex has been changed into a military datacenter. All processing, analysis and reporting activities now take place in Wiesbaden.

History

In 1999 about 50 INSCOM-units were moved from

Bad Aibling Station The Bad Aibling Station (BAS), also known as the 18th United States Army Security Agency Field Station, Field station 81, and Hortensie III is a satellite tracking station operated by the German SIGINT agency BND from nearby ''Mangfall Barracks' ...

to other locations. Together with INSCOM, then 66th Military Intelligence Group moved to

. This unit started as 66th CIC Detachment based in Stuttgart at its reactivation in 1951. In 1952 redesignated 66th CIC Group and in 1977 after an armywide intel reorganisation assigned to INSCOM. In 1986 relocated to

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the '' ...

being redesignated

66th Military Intelligence Brigade The 66th Military Intelligence Brigade ("Six-Six-M-I" and 66th MIB) is a United States Army brigade, subordinate to United States Army Intelligence and Security Command and based at Wiesbaden Army Airfield, Wiesbaden, Germany. After years of hist ...

. In 1995 temporarily redesignated 66th MI Group. Relocated again to Dagger compound Darmstadt as of 1998. Definitely 66th MI Group in 2002 until its final redesignation 66th MI Brigade and its staffing relocation to Wiesbaden Army Airfield in 2008. Until 2015 the Dagger complex based the European Cryptologic Center (ECC) structured as F2 which had been operated by mixed operational crews consisting of specialized personnel from the NSA, the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, c ...

66th Military Intelligence Brigade, the

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

693rd Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group and the

USMC The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through co ...

Marine Cryptologic Support Battalion; all under the command of the 66th Military Intelligence Brigade, which was then awaiting their relocation to Wiesbaden. These specialists used to interpret and analyse all intercepted metadata obtained by * the ICEBOX (2003–2008) facility constructed at former Darmstadt Army Airfield at grid 49°51'19"N 8°35'12"E and * the TENCAP (2005–2009) facility constructed at former Finthen Army Airfield at grid 49°58'8"N 8° 9'46"E. Above mentioned facilities have been removed respectively by the end of 2009 and 2013. In 2015, the

Peng Collective The Peng Collective is a group of culture jamming activists based in Berlin. In 2016, the collective was part of the Berlin Biennale, in 2018 of the Manifesta Biennale and the Athens Biennale. In 2018, they were awarded the Aachen Peace Prize. I ...

operated an airborne leaflet strike over the facility as part of their Intelexit program, to call the employees to quit their job in case of ethical or psychological distress. Shortly after the drop of the leaflets, the association's website was blocked on computers within the complex.

References

{{National Security Agency Installations of the United States Army in Germany National Security Agency facilities

History

See also

References