MI4 was a department of the British Directorate of Military Intelligence

Directorate of Military Intelligence

The Directorate of Military Intelligence was a department of the British War Office.Over its lifetime the Directorate underwent a number of organisational changes, absorbing and shedding sections over time.- History :...

, Section 4, part of the War Office

War Office

The War Office was a department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence...

. It was responsible for aerial reconnaissance

Aerial reconnaissance

Aerial reconnaissance is reconnaissance that is conducted using unmanned aerial vehicles or reconnaissance aircraft. Their roles are to collect imagery intelligence, signals intelligence and measurement and signature intelligence...

 and interpretation. It developed into the present day JARIC

JARIC

JARIC - The National Imagery Exploitation Centre, part of the Intelligence Collection Group within United Kingdom Defence Intelligence, is an imagery analysis and intelligence centre based at RAF Brampton near Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, and historically known as MI4, by which name it is still...

 agency.

History

MI4 was the codename of an organisation that evolved rapidly during and after World War II, including several changes of name. The Photographic Development Unit (PDU) of 1940 became the Photographic Interpretation Unit (PIU) later the same year. The following year it became the Central Interpretation Unit (CIU) and in 1947 became the Joint Air Photographic Intelligence Centre UK - JAPIC (UK).

The role of Aerial Reconnaissance and the codename MI4 were thus subsumed into JAPIC [UK], which continues to the present day, following one further change of name in 1953, as the Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre (JARIC). Its designation as MI4 officially ceased on 8 September 1947, and the title has not endured in common British usage, at least not in the obvious manner that both MI5

MI5

The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...

 and MI6 (also officially defunct titles) have continued to be used colloquially for their respective successor agencies.

One key role that the data from MI4 still performs is the avoidance and removal of land mine

Land mine

A land mine is usually a weight-triggered explosive device which is intended to damage a target—either human or inanimate—by means of a blast and/or fragment impact....

s, as they were heavily mapped in conjunction with the WRAITH initiative during WW2. Some of the data collected by MI4 was subsumed into the IMN (Intelligence Mainframe Network) at Cheltenham. These data have since been absorbed into the aerial reconnaissance unit of GCHQ in Cheltenham, where director Ray Mitinkel oversees the updating process using GPS

Global Positioning System

The Global Positioning System is a space-based global navigation satellite system that provides location and time information in all weather, anywhere on or near the Earth, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites...

 and satellite photography technology to accurately map the data with real time location to prevent future casualties.

External links

• Ministry of Defence - History of JARIC
• MI5
  MI5
  The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
  
  FAQ
• What happened to MI1 - MI4?