The hastily created wartime agency that was dedicated to tackling the threat of improvised explosive devices will become a permanent component of the Defense Department, officials said Friday.

The Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, also known as JIEDDO, will get a new name and transition from a jointly manned activity to a combat support agency under the direction of the undersecretary of defense for acquisitions, technology and logistics.

JIEDDO traces its roots back to a ground-level task force in Iraq in 2003 after U.S. troops began seeing roadside bombs as a weapon of choice among the Iraqi insurgents. It became a formal forcewide agency in 2006 with a mission to coordinate the money, intelligence and technology dedicated to countering IEDs.

"The war is over so essentially we needed to find a home for JIEDDO," said Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman. He described the move as "a realignment to improve efficiencies."

Warren warned that JIEDDO's overall budget may decline from its current level of $444.5 million.

"It will not stay the same amount of resources. We're still going through the analytics of exactly what JIEDDO will look like when this transition is over. In fact we haven't even come up with a new name for it yet. We will," Warren said.

In September, Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work ordered a review of JIEDDO and sought a plan to make it "an ending joint organization that would preserve its essential capabilities," Warren said.

The announcement Friday comes after months of uncertainty about the JIEDDO's future. Some Pentagon officials wanted to shut it down, citing the end of the Iraq War and the need to cut costs across the Defense Department.

JIEDDO was criticized in a 2012 report from the Government Accountability Office, which identified duplication and overlap among many of its programs and other Defense Department efforts.

About Andrew Tilghman

Andrew Tilghman is the executive editor for Military Times. He is a former Military Times Pentagon reporter and served as a Middle East correspondent for the Stars and Stripes. Before covering the military, he worked as a reporter for the Houston Chronicle in Texas, the Albany Times Union in New York and The Associated Press in Milwaukee.

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