CONCEPTS & DOCTRINE

The Intel XXI Concept II: The Operational Patterns

by Captain Neal J. Wegner
In the last issue, I introduced the new Intel XXI concept and discussed the 21st century intelligence force and how we will design, equip and train it to meet the demands of future operations and the needs of Force XXI commanders. It is very important that intelligence professionals understand how the Force XXI warfighter will conduct operations in the 21st century battlespace to meet these needs. Force XXI commanders will conduct operations through six operational patterns. These are neither phased nor sequential, but apply throughout the continuum of operations from planning to execution and redeployment. Intel XXI will focus on supporting these patterns, so understanding them is key.

Project the Force

The first operational pattern is project the force. Force projection involves the tactical tailoring of our mission, enemy, terrain and weather, troops available, and time (METT-T)-driven force packages and the conduct of split-based operations from the Continental United States anywhere in the world. One major consideration in Force XXI operations is the participation of national, joint, combined, operational (including special operations forces (SOF)), interagency, and multinational capabilities. Situational awareness provided early in the planning process will enable commanders to tailor their early-entry forces with the right mix of combat, combat support, and combat service support (CSS) assets. Intel XXI commanders and their supported commanders must be ready to fully integrate and employ these critical assets. Intel XXI organizations and systems must be modular, scalable, and flexible to meet the highly complex and often dynamically changing demands of future force projection operations. Strategic, operational, and tactical agility will be essential characteristics of the Army's Intel XXI force.
Commanders in future force projection operations will have the capability to establish intelligence support bases (ISBs) while deploying tailored force packages into the theater of operations. The ISB, located in sanctuary, will provide intelligence to digitally linked deployed forces during all phases of the operation, including tailored intelligence products enroute, intelligence overwatch during initial deployment, and the ability to develop situational awareness and targets before the force arrives in theater. The ISB also will leverage and focus national, joint and multinational intelligence capabilities while the forward-deploying intelligence units focus on staging, getting established, and building up in the theater. Additionally, SOF in the area of operations must be considered since they can be a valuable source of intelligence for initial entry forces.
The early-entry Intel XXI force package may be as small as one person with a single-channel tactical satellite communications terminal and an All-Source Analysis System Remote Workstation (RWS). It also may be as large as an intelligence direct support company team or a task force with specialized augmentation from the Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) or national agencies. It will have the capability to receive enroute updates while on board aircraft or ships. Since commanders may need to fight or operate immediately upon arrival, the deploying intelligence team needs capabilities to
Again, tailorability is the key to Intel XXI support to force projection operations.
INSCOM forces in the 21st century will play a vital role in force projection. Linkage to facilities such as the Regional Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) Operations Centers (RSOCs) and National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) will allow commanders to "ramp-up" quickly by taking advantage of their regionally focused intelligence databases, products, planning, and training resources. INSCOM's force projection brigades will provide complementary and frequently unique capabilities to reinforce deploying operational and tactical forces. In future operations it is clear that no one echelon and intelligence organization can do it all. It will take a total force team effort, operating a system of systems in a seamless architecture.

Protect the Force

The second pattern is Protect the Force. The Army of the future could be vulnerable at every echelon throughout all phases of the operation to a wide range of threats from conventional fires and maneuver, to terrorists, and computer virus invasions or other sabotage. Force protection must therefore involve the development of embedded technologies and procedures to protect our command, control, communications, computers and intelligence (C4I) assets, the operational employment of physical protective measures, and C2W. Commanders of the future must be aware of the full range of potential threats, prioritize their protection requirements in terms of key assets, critical nodes, and essential elements of friendly information, and then be prepared to allocate resources accordingly.
In the area of force protection, Intel XXI will focus on conducting intelligence operations to assess friendly capabilities and vulnerabilities in relation to a thorough assessment of the adversary's attack and intelligence, reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition (RSTA) capabilities.
To provide commanders the information they need, the intelligence system will be able to dynamically portray how an adversary sees friendly forces so that cause-and-effect assessments can be made during planning and wargaming. Using reverse intelligence preparation of the battlefield (IPB) techniques, the commander can determine active and passive protection courses of action. Intelligence force protection activities will also focus on preventing surprise and conducting counter-reconnaissance and C2W to ensure U.S. forces achieve information dominance at the right time and place. Finally, multidiscipline counterintelligence operations in support of force protection and operations security must be thoroughly integrated into all phases of the operation.

Gain Information Dominance

The third operational pattern is Gain Information Dominance. Information dominance is the delta between the understanding of information available to each of two opposing commanders. It is achieved through the execution of information operations including the