INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana National Guard will add about 200 new positions for its new electronic warfare and intelligence battalion.
In a press release, the guardsmen will need specialized skills and high-level clearances to use technology to "protect and defend Hoosiers, Americans and the nation’s allies from threats around the globe."
Those in the battalion will serve the state from the Indiana Intelligence Center in Indianapolis.
"Our ability to attract yet another high-tech unit speaks volumes of the talent pool in the Hoosier state, and aligns with our efforts to help keep Indiana in the top three in the nation in the concentration of the industries of the future, including life sciences, aerospace, healthcare, defense, ag-bioscience, cyber, orthopedics and advanced manufacturing," Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb said in the release.
Indiana National Guard Brig. Gen. Dale Lyles said the new battalion will be a showcase to the nation.
The new battalion needs intelligence officers, warrant officers, information technology maintainers, all-source intelligence analysts, geospatial analysts, signal intelligence analysts, human intelligence collectors and analysts and counterintelligence personnel, according to the release.
“You begin the path to the skills highly sought after in civilian industry,” Indiana National Guard Maj. Grover Smith, director of intelligence operations and plans, said in the release. “Also the high-level clearance opens the doors for highly marketable career fields which will not only benefit the state, but also benefit the National Guard as we grow and change.”
Indiana National Guard Col. Jeffrey S. Hackett, the operations officer for the guard, said the U.S. Army will invest about $44 million over the first two years and about $1.5 million annually in manpower, training and equipment.
