Vojnoobaveštajna agencija

The Vojnoobaveštajna agencija or VOA is the military intelligence agency of the Serbian Ministry of Defence. Its role is similar to that of the U.S. DIA or the UK DIS but its Director reports directly to the Minister of Defence.

The military Intelligence Agency is an expert and governing body of the intelligence of the MoD of Serbia and makes an integral part of the security system of the Republic of Serbia. It is tasked with and responsible for providing information, as well as representing and protecting the interests of the Republic of Serbia abroad. It carries out its tasks through activities pertaining to military intelligence and military diplomacy.

Mission and objectives
The main mission is to provide intelligence support to the state government of the Republic of Serbia and Serbian Armed Forces as well as to their members home and abroad. The competences, the jurisdiction of work, responsibilities, tasks, relations, cooperation, are regulated by the Book of Regulations on internal Organization and Work Position Systematization. Agency motto is "Faster, better and wiser", and its staff and officers in their duties tend to be the first line of defence.

Basic objectives are preventing surprises and providing data on security situation in close and wider surroundings, with focus on detecting and monitoring forces and the intentions of a possible enemy, terrorist and extremist forces, as well as on collecting other data on activities in the army, economy and politics which could greatly influence the safety of the country.

History
By establishing General Staff, established by the General Staff Organization in 1876, the bearer of the military intelligence activities was the First, that is, the Operation Section. By the Order of the General Staff in 1884, the act defines that the External Sub Section of the Operation Section be the executive organ of the military intelligence service. Later on, the competences of External Section were then extended and in 1900 it was also called Sub Section for Reporting, while in 1902 it was named Sub Section for Reporting of the Operation Section.

During WWI, when the General Staff was transformed into the Serbian Supreme Command HQ, the Sub Section for Reporting of the Operation Section became the Intelligence Subsection of the Supreme Command Operation Section, and it was usually treated as the Intelligence Sub Section of the Supreme Command.

On 10 April 1920, by the Order on General Staff and General Staff Profession (Official Gazette, no. 2411920) the General Staff was made up of: Operation Section, Intelligence Section, Traffic Section, History Section and Geographical Institute. Intelligence Section started to operate on 6 May 1920

Intelligence Section of the General Staff of Kingdom of Yugoslavia Armed Forces developed both in structure and function, while still performing two basic functions: intelligence and counterintelligence while at the same time underlining the necessity of intensifying the psychological propaganda function. The number of sections and sub sections increased over time, so this subsection became General Staff Second Directorate with two intelligence sections and a number of intelligence centers.

By the order to form the Section for People’s Protection as of 13 May 1944 the security functions were definitively and officially separated from intelligence functions. The General Staff of the Yugoslav Army (JNA) had an Intelligence Section which in 1947 became into JNA GS Second Department, that is, the Department of Intelligence of JNA GS.

Based on the decision on organizational and mobilization changes, as of 14 September 2004, the Department of Intelligence of Yugoslav Army GS was transformed and separate two agencies were established-the Military Security Agency and the Military Intelligence Agency respectively.