Ch. 3 Integrating the Intelligence WFF

Integrating the Intelligence Warfighting Function

• Leadership is crucial for understanding the mission, current situation, and how the operational environment (OE) impacts the mission. Leaders must integrate intelligence into operations for a thorough understanding of the OE and to determine the best time and location to employ capabilities against adversaries.
• Leaders direct and provide guidance to all units, including the intelligence warfighting function. Knowledge of intelligence fundamentals, processes, capabilities, architecture, and their application to support operations is essential.
• Commanders and staffs at all levels synchronize intelligence with other warfighting functions to visualize the OE and accomplish tasks and activities, while maximizing combat power, minimizing risk.
• The integration and synchronization of warfighting functions, including intelligence, are vital for mission success.
• The operational process involves continuously assessing, planning, and executing with constant assessment.
• Integrating processes include staff information requirements, information collection, targeting, risk management, knowledge management, and intelligence roles in integration and synchronization.
• Intelligence roles during integration and synchronization include recommending needs, presenting enemy courses of action, providing timely and accurate intelligence, and ensuring effective intelligence integration into planning.
• The intelligence warfighting function is integrated through planning methodologies, integrating processes, and the unit's battle rhythm. This integration is similar to other warfighting functions.

The Role of the Commander and Staff

• The commander is responsible for command and control, guiding and directing forces to achieve mission accomplishment.
• Staffs support commanders by making and implementing decisions, and integrating and synchronizing combat power.
• Commanders drive the intelligence process, while intelligence drives operations.
• Commanders tailor intelligence capabilities and operations to support the mission.
• Commanders provide direction, understanding, visualization, descriptions of problems, direction through articulated requirements, lead and implement decisions, and assess the operations.
• Commanders engage in cross-staff collaboration, especially with fire support, and space operations staff.

Commander's Critical Information Requirements

• Commanders identify critical information requirements (CCIR) for timely decision-making.
• CCIRs are two categories: priority intelligence requirements (PIRs) and friendly force information requirements (FFIRs).
• CCIRs drive the intelligence process-information collection, management, and analysis.

Commander and Staff Considerations

• Effective staff collaboration for critical thinking, candor, and cooperation is essential.
• Commanders must assess necessary risks and operational uncertainty.
• Leaders must clearly communicate operational plans and the OE.
• Close involvement in the early stages of the IPOE (intelligence preparation of the operational environment) is necessary.
• The intelligence staff should evaluate the need for information collection, tailoring intelligence products for different needs (e.g., IPOE, running estimates, COP).
• Ensure sufficient resources for information collection and analysis.
• Ensure continuous information collection for timely responses.

Staff Teamwork

• Staff teamwork involves coordination, cooperation, and sharing of knowledge between all staff sections for effective operation support.
• Coordinated efforts from all staff members provide unique perspectives, knowledge, expertise to support the rest of the staff, especially in specific intelligence-related tasks. Leadership should encourage and facilitate this collaboration and integration.
• Understanding and knowledge of their own and other sections' responsibilities is important for staff coordination and effective results.
• Commanders should help foster a collaborative environment in headquarters and with units.

Operations Process and Intelligence

• Commanders employ the operational process to incorporate joint partners, empower subordinate initiative, and delegate authorities for appropriate situations.
• Commanders direct the intelligence warfighting function including staff engagement, relationships with G2/S2, and interaction with the MI unit commander.
• The major activities of the operations process include planning, preparing, executing, and continually assessing.
• Army planning methodologies, including problem-solving, ADM, MDMP, RDSP, and TLP, enable effective decision making.

Intelligence Support to Military Decision-Making Process

• The MDMP (military decision-making process) provides a planning methodology for visualizing the operational environment (OE) and threats, developing plans and orders to aid the commander in operations and long-term plans.
• The intelligence staff leads the intelligence preparation of the operational environment (IPOE).
• The staff provides all-source intelligence to support decisions and includes line of communications overlays, broadcast networks, combined information overlays, and electro-magnetic orders of battle.
• The staff develops relevant intelligence products (HPTLs, Target Selection Standards (TSS), and attack matrices) that facilitate operational planning and execution.

Integrating Processes

• Integrating processes involve identifying and coordinating relevant tasks in different disciplines for effective operations.
• The process includes IPOE (intelligence preparation of the operational environment), information collection, targeting, risk management, and the use of knowledge management.
• Information collection involves all relevant collection assets, both military and nonmilitary sources, to acquire detailed and timely intelligence, including appropriate analysis.
• Integrating processes allow the commander to effectively synchronize operations across multiple disciplines.

Information Collection

• Information collection is an activity to synchronize and integrate sensors and assets for information gathering.
• Accurate information collection is essential to support current and future operations.
• Collection management tasks and teams drive information collection.
• Effective information collection aids in achieving situational understanding of the threat and operational environment.

Targeting

• Targeting is a process of selecting and prioritizing targets and responding to them.
• The commander and staff uses the targeting cycle to integrate fires and create desired effects.
• Targeting is an integrated and synchronized process that considers operational and capability constraints.
• Targeting proceeds from objectives, assessments, and analysis of achievable, beneficial, and least impactful outcomes.
• Targeting should adhere to the principles of focus, effects-based thinking, and interdisciplinary approaches for effective operations.

Risk Management

• Risk management is a critical process that identifies, assesses, and mitigates risks.
• The chief of protection or S-3 integrates risk management into the MDMP.
• Commanders use intelligence to understand the threats, and to effectively mitigate risks, while balancing impact with mission benefits.

Knowledge Management

• Knowledge management is a process to improve knowledge flow, thereby enhancing shared understandings, learning, and decision-making.
• The intelligence staff plays a crucial role in ensuring effective knowledge management for staff and units to increase effectiveness and resiliency.
• Knowledge management is essential for synchronizing information and ensuring proper use of information to avoid overwhelming commanders with excessive data.