Accelerating Army Intelligence Transformation

Army intelligence transformation enables decisive action by Army and Joint commanders in an era of persistent conflict, highly complex operating environments and asymmetric challenge. Ongoing Army Intelligence Campaign Plan initiatives integrate advanced fusion analysis and "find, fix, finish, exploit, analyze and disseminate" into battle command processes at brigade combat team (BCT) and battalion (BN) levels, where velocity and risk are greatest. Army Military Intelligence (MI) is simultaneously adapting how we equip, train, share information, develop leaders and improve reasoning skills to generate actionable intelligence at the lowest possible level. Seven years of hard-won wartime experience have sharpened our focus and continue to guide our efforts, bringing urgency to the task. Our soldiers expect and deserve the best possible intelligence tools and training the nation can provide. Modular design puts a high premium on competitive advantage at the lowest maneuver levels-Army MI is adapting to meet this need and overmatch enemy adaptation and innovation.

Army MI modernization is vetted on the battlefield in Iraq, Afghanistan and other confrontation zones every day; feedback is direct and drives needed changes across the force. It has to be that way-the operational demands on MI are at historic levels, with more than 7,500 MI soldiers and civilians deployed in direct support of two theater-level Joint force headquarters (HQ), one corps HQ, four division HQs, 23 reinforced brigade combat teams, the Army's first battlefield surveillance brigade (BfSB), Joint interrogation and debriefing center (JIDC) operations, multiple special operations task forces, military transition teams and much more across all traditional MI disciplines, several nontraditional ones (such as biometrics, media exploitation, forensic target exploitation) and tactically relevant "reach support."

Army MI transformation incorporates battlefield lessons learned and responds to rapid technological advances and worldwide threat evolution. With funding support from the Office of the secretary of Defense and Congress, we have accelerated fielding of advanced tools, systems and capabilities. MI transformation centers around six critical initiatives:

* Increasing MI capacity and advanced skills readiness.

* Growing Army human intelligence (HUMINT) capabilities.

* Force-wide employment of distributed common ground system-Army (DCGS-A) capability.

* Revitalizing intelligence training at home station and combat training centers (CTCs) (Project Foundry).

* Expanding persistent surveillance and exploitation capabilities.

* Changing MI culture.

Increasing MI Capacity. Army MI force structure to support division and BCT operations prior to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 was inadequate for the broad range of continuous collection, analysis and targeting entailed in protracted full spectrum operations. These tactical-level shortfalls were particularly pronounced in skill sets and capability areas most needed for effective counterinsurgency campaigns, which place a high premium on BCT and BN forces to rapidly collect, process and fuse large amounts of ambiguous information as the basis for contextual understanding and timely decision making. The Army's 2004 decision to move from a division-centric to BCT-based modular warfighting force made robust MI capabilities at BCT level an operational imperative. Since then, the Army has worked to add more than 7,500 MI soldiers to the tactical force, with special weighting towards expanding HUMINT and analytic capacity at BfSB, BCT and BN levels. Army MI growth under the modular design has also significantly increased collection and target exploitation capabilities at BCT level in response to lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over the past four years, the Army more than doubled the size of maneuver BN S-2 sections and more than tripled the size of BCT S-2 teams, with additional growth under consideration. MI companies now organic to every BCT include HUMINT, signals intelligence (SIGINT), unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and advanced analytical capabilities.

BfSB MI Collection BNs. Combat experience has demonstrated that even modular BCTs frequently require additional, downward reinforcing intelligence support for successful full spectrum operations in complex environments. To meet this need, the Army is building eight active component and six reserve component MI collection BNs. Each is heavily weighted with HUMINT (military source operatiens and interrogation), advanced SIGINT, and target exploitation capabilities for maximum flexibility and impact. MI collection BNs are designed to operate under BfSB control or separately in direct support. The first BfSB (from Fort Bragg, N.C.) is now deployed with two MI battalions in Iraq; the second BfSB (at Fort Hood, Texas) is now preparing for deployment; the third BfSB is forming at Fort Lewis, Wash. A total of 10 BfSBs (four active/six reserve) will exist within the force by fiscal year (FY) 2013. Army Intelligence and security Command (INSCOM) plays a direct role in ensuring that BfSB military intelligence battalions bring advanced technology and a high level of advanced skills readiness to the fight.

Revitalize Army HUMINT. HUMINT is essential for full spectrum operations and especially vital in irregular warfare and stability operations. Expansion of Army HUMINT capacity is an essential component of MI transformation. The Army will more than double the size of its tactical HUMINT force by FY 2013 to a force of more than 7,000 HUMINT soldiers across the active and reserve components. Each BCT now has three organic HUMINT collection teams and a HUMINT plans-and-operations element. Each reinforcing BfSB military intelligence collection BN brings 35 additional HUMINT collection teams. The Army's first JIDC battalion (of three total) is now in Iraq; each brings an additional 84 interrogators to the fight. The Army has also partnered with the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and the Defense Intelligence Agency to expand HUMINT training through establishment of a HUMINT Training-Joint Center of Excellence (HT-JCOE) at Fort Huachuca, Ariz. The HT-JCOE now conducts five advanced HUMINT training courses with significantly expanded student throughput synched to wartime Army Force Generation (ARFORGEN) needs.

DCGS-A. To generate "actionable intelligence," commanders and S-2/G-2s require broadly distributed access to information at all classification levels and the ability to rapidly search, correlate, fuse and visualize large amounts of data integrated on common geospatial products for contextual understanding. EXIGS-A provides the distributed, all-source flat-network sharing and advanced fusion analysis tools necessary to understand activity norms and changes, discern linkages, appreciate significance, tip/cue collectors and strike platforms, positively identify/ track and target hostile forces, and assess effects and more along tactically useful timelines. DCGS-A enables access to more than 200 databases across both intelligence and nonintelligence domains and is now in use down to BN level in Iraq and Afghanistan, integrated into all MI training courses, in use at our CTCs and on track for DCGS-A (Version 3.0) Army-wide fielding by 2010. The next version of DCGS-A (Version 4.0) will integrate flat-network capabilities into hardened mobile platforms and be integrated into Future Combat System (FCS) units. Our soldiers bring cyber intuition and "digital native" talents to DCGS-A use that affords asymmetric advantage on today's battlefields. DCGS-A capabilities represent a powerful paradigm shift in the way we move, share and process information across the force. We've gone from acetate, grease-pencil and "jelly-roll" overlays to DCGS-A and modern battle command.

Revitalizing Intelligence Training. The Army is transforming intelligence training from equipment and single-discipline programs to multidiscipline exploitation and fusionbased analysis training informed by wartime lessons learned to generate actionable intelligence at all levels across the force. We have simultaneously made major changes in how we synchronize development, fielding and training of advanced MI systems with ARFORGEN cycles for rapid integration. INSCOM's Project Foundry provides BCT and division commanders with single-hub access to advanced skills training, certifications and live environment training opportunities weighted towards next-deploying units. Foundry is specifically designed to improve MI wartime readiness across all intelligence disciplines and Army components and enables "reach-forward" opportunities to gain contact with the enemy before deployment from home station. INSCOM and the Army Intelligence Center have partnered with Training and Doctrine Command to integrate DCGS-A and other advanced skills training capabilities into our CTCs to enable deploying units to work against realistic battlefield complexity, reinforce combat lessons learned and integrate emerging technologies into unit tactics, techniques and procedures.

Expanding Persistent Surveillance and Exploitation Capabilities. Persistent surveillance requires the synchronization and integration of networked sensors and analysts across the force. Maneuver forces must be able to detect, identify, locate and track targets in near-real-time in order to warn friendly forces, develop the situation prior to contact and take advantage of fleeting opportunities. The Army is expanding its persistent surveillance capability through both manned and unmanned systems, including a Shadow tactical UAS platoon (four air vehicles) in every BCT military intelligence company with 125-kilometer range and four to six hours of coverage. The Sky Warrior extended range multipurpose UAS provides Army corps, division and BCT commanders with dedicated day/night reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition and communications relay out to 300 kilometers with 12-30 hours of coverage, depending on configuration. A SIGINT payload will be added in FY 2009. Army aerial exploitation battalions (AEBs) utilize the MQ-5B Hunter UAS out to a range of 200 kilometers with 15-20 hours of coverage to complement Shadow and Warrior support to corps, division and BCT operations. Our AEBs also employ manned, modernized guardrail common sensor and airborne reconnaissance low fixedwing systems for layered multisensor collection coverage. All of these systems are committed to the fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as other high-priority locations worldwide. Future aerial manned/multi-intelligence capabilities will reside aboard airborne common sensor, which is on track to subsume current capabilities in FY 2016, link to the DCGS-A flat network and be configured for long-loiter, all-weather, day/night onboard processing and direct, two-way interaction with supported ground commanders.

Advanced ground exploitation capabilities are being trained and fielded concurrently to complement airborne collectors. These include Prophet ground SIGINT systems that pace commercial technology, precision target geolocation capabilities, handheld biometrics collection systems linked to reach-back match repositories, unconventional unattended sensors, rapid media and document exploitation systems, forensic collection/analysis systems and more.

Change the Culture. Our toughest challenges are learning to open our minds to critical thinking using all sources of information and changing the way we think about intelligence operations to fully exploit the opportunities inherent in cultural complexities and historical/regional nuances. Achieving desired effects in dynamic and complex operating environments requires close soldier interaction with the local populace and improved observation and reasoning skills (as the ultimate sensor) in order to gauge perceptions, effects, local dynamics and develop alternative soft-power courses of action. The Army has made a major commitment to improving soldier capability in this regard through expanded cultural and language training, infusion of foreign-born legal residents into our Army as military occupational specialty 09L interpreter/translator soldiers, "every soldier is a sensor" training across the force, BCT augmentation with tailored human terrain teams, and integration of University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies-trained red team critical thinkers into division and BCT staffs.

Transforming Army Intelligence at War. Ongoing MI transformation actions empower our commanders and soldiers to fight effectively in complex environments and among the people through responsive, agile intelligence support at all tactical levels across the full spectrum of operations. Army Intelligence remains on track to deliver effective, modernized intelligence capabilities to Army modular forces and Joint/national partners and generate actionable intelligence along tactically relevant timelines. Our soldiers demand and deserve every advantage we can deliver.

© 2008 Association of the United States Army Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.