NON-LINEAR DISTRIBUTED BATTLESPACE

ASYMMETRIC/HYBRID ENEMY

BATALLION LEVEL INTELLIGENCE CAPABILITY (PUSHING INT CAPABILITY TO BOOT LEVEL)

INTRODUCING CENTRALISED INTELLIGENCE AND COMBAT OPERATIONS CONTROL THROUGH TOCs 

BATTLE STAFF NCOs

&

INT/OPS NETWORKING THROUGH THE CREATION OF THE DIV INTELLIGENCE NET FOR NORTH EAST (EASTERN COMMAND)

 

 

CLICK ON IMAGE ABOVE TO GO TO COP DESKTOP VISUALIZATION PANEL






 

CP/TOC
BATTLE STAFF NCO -INTELLIGENCE WARFIGHTING FUNCTION


Roles and Functions of Battle Staff

Noncommissioned Officers in the Intelligence Warfighting Domain

 

Battle staff noncommissioned officers (NCOs) focus on assisting their respective

staff officers and senior NCOs. The entire staff contributes to making and executing timely decisions. Commanders and staffs continually look for opportunities to streamline cumbersome or time-consuming procedures. The following paragraphs, organized by warfighting function (WFF), suggest activities and functions common to all members of a particular staff section. Principal staff officers along with their senior NCOs determine what specific functions are performed within their sections based upon the skill sets of available personnel.

 

Commanders and Staff concentrate on achieving a streamlined picture of the ensuing battle , in fact at any moment of time the Staff and the Commander should be able to grasp the immediate current situation as simply as possible without the presentation getting inundated with information overflow.This common operating picture viewed explicitly and concretely enables the Commander to take swift decisions in an otherwise fast evolving uncertain battle environment.It is not possible for the Staff to accomplish this by themselves and the standard office personnel who assist them (in the Tactical Ops Center)..what is required that the battle staff from among the JCOs,Senior NCO and NCOs assist the Staff Officers in the respective warfighting functions , viz: intelligence and CI;maneuver;sustainment;command,control,communication and computers C4;plans;fires;protection;engineer and provost marshall functions.The main objective is to acquire the best situational understanding about the common operating picture within the tactical operations center/command post. . The

TOC/CP has two primary functions:

.To track Soldiers and equipment during the battle to assist the leader in

the command and control of the unit.

To serve as a data center that processes enemy and friendly information

 

Intelligence (Intel) Function

Intelligence readiness,tasks,synchronization,counterintelligence,other intelligence support and support to force protection , coin , and other security programs—these war fighting functional domains if properly executed, supervised and controlled ,help the Commander to a great extent in visualizing the battlefield from the correct perspective and shape the battle in his favor by deciding promptly on course of actions. It is here where the most must be extracted from the Battle Staff NCOs who are assisting the Battle Staff Officers.

Intel readiness:

• Throughout the AO the Battle staff NCOs should coordinate with horizontally dispersed units and intel staff and lower and upper echelon staff,establishing and maintaining the proper relationships/procedures.  

• There should be a proper command intelligence training plan and the Battle staff NCOs should see to it that threat force considerations,intelligence,counterintelligence and force protection are properly integrated in this training plan.This will ensure good intelligence readiness.

Prepare the command intel-training plan and integrate intel, counterintelligence,

and enemy/threat considerations into other training plans.

 

Intel tasks:

Recommend priority intelligence requirements (PIR).

•Execute and manage the intelligence preparation of the battlefield in line with changing intelligence requirements due to the rapid tempo of battle,co-ordinate with the IPB efforts of the rest of the staff and other unit staff.

Create situation reports,intelligence estimates,update enemy/threat/terrain/weather factors so that the commanders situational perspective is heightened thus leading to a clear common operating picture COP.

Provide support to indications and warning with respect to operations.

Provide support to Force Protection

Provide intelligence support to battle damage assessment.

Provide support to targeting:Develop targets,Create and manage target grey,white and black lists,target folders,target reduction,target acquisition and tracking of HPTs.

Information operations is the mainstay in any battle and to this end the Battle staff NCOs should provide intelligence support by providing intelligence feeds during IO planning and while intelligence planning to consider IO factors.

 

Intel synchronization:

Provide support to ISR synchronization , thus reducing wastage of intelligence assets,proper allocation of assets as per availability and capability—all the while

 keeping the priority intelligence requirements of the commander in perspective.

Synchronize intel support to operations and to intelligence, surveillance,

and reconnaissance (ISR) integration through close coordination with the

commander, chief of staff (COS)/executive officer (XO), S3, and the

other staff members.

Develop and continuously update list of intel gaps.

Analyze and track commander’s critical information requirements

(CCIR), PIR, friendly forces information requirements (FFIR), and

information requirements (IRs) to develop generic collection tasks and

requests for support from higher and adjacent commands.

Develop the intel synchronization plan.

 

Other intel support:

Provide intel updates, other products, and additional support to ISR

integration, the concept of operations, and mission accomplishment.

Advise the commander so that all collection, production, and

dissemination adhere to special security, legal, and regulatory restrictions.

Facilitate the military-intelligence-unique deconfliction of collection

among assigned, attached, and supporting intelligence-collection assets

and other collection assets in the area of operations (AO).

Prepare the intel annex to plans and orders and the intel estimate.

Coordinate technical control and technical support for military intel assets

and units.

Debrief friendly personnel.                                                                     

Identify linguist requirements pertaining to intel support.

Determine all foreign languages and dialects proficiencies needed for

mission accomplishment.

Coordinate security investigations of local-hire linguists.

 

Counterintelligence:

  1. See to it that the counterintelligence activities are conducted properly, in line with standard TTPs (technical control) and coordinate all such activities keeping deconfliction in perspective.
  2. Keep a tab on all contingency funding and source-rewards programs.
  3. Identify threat multidimensional collection capabilities and activities which are geared against the unit.
  4. Match these intelligence collection capabilities against the unit’s security and intelligence capabilities , activities and plans. These include operational security,countersurveillance,signals security , military security, deception planning, force protection,PSYOP,area security operations. Here it is very important to conduct a mission-needs-capability analysis to properly utilize counterintelligence assets without wasting them or utilizing assets which cannot put up with enemy capability or unable to satisfy the Commanders intelligence requirements.

 

Support to security programs:

  1. Conduct a counterintelligence review of the unit installation-physical security
  2. Evaluate security programs of the command. Supervise these programs as they relate to Command , personnel , information.
  3. Support to OPSEC
  4. Support to deception practices as applied to units plans , intent and actions.
  5. Ascertain unit vulnerabilities and advise accordingly
  6. Ensure biometrics systems are in place and functioning properly.

    TACTICAL OPS CENTER/CP              BATTLE STAFF INTEL NCO

 
 
The Commander needs to see , shape , shield , strike and move within the Battlefield most efficiently while retaining that competitive edge over the enemy.Battlefield conditions are extremely fluid and the current type of prevailing Battlespace--distributed and non-linear-- compounds intelligence collection highly.
I would like to view the Battlespace not as a whole , operationally or strategically but rather as a tactical-nodal-network..numerous tactical battles being fought at various points distributed throughout the battlefield..in fact so numerous that its a very very hard task for limited intelligence collection assets to cover the entire battlefield with the result (what has been happening till now) intelligence/information feeds up the channel to higher HQs are only from the major battles , the routine tactical battles going ignored.Unlike our american counterpart , the boot level indian soldier is not equipped with hand-held data entry system which can also access pertinent intelligence required by him from the central intelligence database at rear-HQ/Higher HQs.Hence if in any tactical combat operation the soldiers gain valuable intelligence , say after exploitation of captured enemy personnel or documents they cant ''push'' it above.Again the limited information flow upwards by intelligence collection assets is ''limited'' as only major battles and some tactical engagements are covered.With the result that the higher HQs does not get a complete situational understanding and also limited responses in the form of targeting instructions or need for further intelligence is pushed down to the operational and Bn levels..with most of the urgent actionable intelligence required by the soldier on the ground being unobtainable.
We need to make the average soldier on the ground int-savvy.It is not difficult , as he needent be trained in all intelligence functions but rather be acquainted with tactical questioning,screening and document exploitation plus surveillance/reconnaissance skills.
Regarding the last two he need only understand how R&S is conducted , and all the factors that go into it--predeployment,insertion and the two activities itself(collection)--he needent be proificient in R&S,the intelligence asset (the CI man[or one member of the R&S team trained in TQ,DOCEX] with the R&S team) can look for intelligence/CI information while the R&S team does its own bit.
Battle Staff man the TOC/CP;besides the officers/JCOs there are the Senior NCOs and NCOs.These people can be trained to assist in intelligence duties; if the TOC/CP suffers casualties and if we have a pool of int-savvy soldiers which can be drawn from the combat troops,well the TOC/CP is again operational.
The next section will elaborate Battle Staff (NCOs and Senior NCOs) functions w.r.t the intelligence warfighting function.
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The CP officers role is to configure operations in such a manner so that he can ‘’see’’ the battle space in the most simple, direct manner , without any ambiguity or inundating information and maintain a wide view of operations. Military decision making and planning processes occur at all levels of Command and similarly at the CP/TOC too. Battle staff officers should be able to analyze higher headquarters mission orders , adjacent headquarters feeds/requirements and lower units requirements and ‘’pushed-up’’ intelligence feeds –ensuring seamless operations. They should be able to assess the tactical situation , the enemy’s intent and the long and short term friendly courses of actions. They use MDMP to properly steer TOC/CP operations in conformation with the Commanders intent and priority intelligence requirements and develop estimates and plans within the various war fighting functional areas. These are sort of ‘’managerial roles’’ which can only  be accomplished successfully with a trained battle staff NCOs and Sr NCOs in the CP/TOC team. . The TOC/CP battle staff officers  should not routinely post the Operations map, work digital command and control (C2) systems, or answer Telephones. These roles should be fulfilled by battle staff NCOs.These Battle staff NCOs must have access to all war plans at the CP/TOC ,must understand fully what are the critical and priority intelligence requirements of the Commander as laid down before the Battle staff officers , must be able to receive and analyze intelligence feeds from the ongoing tactical operations in the AO overseen by the CP/TOC,maintain and understand ops schedules , execution matrices and overall common operating picture. He is the frontline information manager. The battle staff NCO and battle captain must work together and understand each Other’s roles and responsibilities.  
 
...TO BE CONTINUED
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Commanders and Staff concentrate on achieving a streamlined picture of the ensuing battle , in fact at any moment of time the Staff and the Commander should be able to grasp the immediate current situation as simply as possible without the presentation getting inundated with information overflow.This common operating picture viewed explicitly and concretely enables the Commander to take swift decisions in an otherwise fast evolving uncertain battle environment.It is not possible for the Staff to accomplish this by themselves and the standard office personnel who assist them (in the Tactical Ops Center)..what is required that the battle staff from among the JCOs,Senior NCO and NCOs assist the Staff Officers in the respective warfighting functions , viz: intelligence and
CI;maneuver;sustainment;command,control,communication and computers C4;plans;fires;protection;engineer and provost marshall functions.The main objective is to acquire the best situational understanding about the common operating picture within the tactical operations center/command post. . The TOC/CP has two primary functions: • To track Soldiers and equipment during the battle to assist the leader in the command and control of the unit. • To serve as a data center that processes enemy and friendly information. 
The role of the battle staff is a critical component to achieve mission success in a counterinsurgency environment. Battle staff noncommissioned officers (NCOs) perform a multitude of vitally important roles and functions in the tactical operations centers and command posts. They are the principal managers of battle tracking, which supports the timely analysis and processing of plans and orders, and they continually adapt these plans and orders to counter the threat. 
 

NOTES:

BN STRUCTURE (OPS/INTELLIGENCE STAFF)

BN INT SEC STAFF

S1

S2

S3

S4

 

S2---He is the main staff officer handling all security procedures ensuring strict compliance.To this effect he takes into account:

Mission precise definition

Mission breakdown into subcomponents & Analysis 

Wargaming

Planning

Operation execution

( He will coordinate with S3 throughout so as to integrate intelligence and operations.Intelligence drives ops;and vice versa--this he should always bear in mind.In fact the S1 and S2 should be colocated in the same operations center.)

(The Division must maintain an intranet capability wherein all intelligence and operations data,historical , current and projected are maintained in the database.For example,all sensors,humint-sigint-elint-comint-techint-masint deployed in the Brigade area of the Division should be able to channel the information collected to the specific tactical operations center Desk NCO.Each Brigade will have seperate TOCs installed for each/group of (as the case may be depending on manpower availability to staff TOCs)company/companies  of every batallion.The humint team will send reports to the HUMINT Desk NCO.Similarly with the other intelligence collection disciplines/sensors.Now after analysis by the analysis element in the TOC the intelligence information is passed on to the LAN server.Say we have as the TOTAL NORTH EAST battlespace comprising of the disturbed States.Every State is broken down territory/area wise into specific area of ops.Each area of ops is subjected to intelligence collection by the Bn Intelligence organic units,wherein the information as said above is passed on to speciic intelligence sensor based TOC.or it could be one TOC may cater to all sensor types with each Desk NCO allocated to each sensor information receipt channel.Each subset area of operations within the boundaries of each State has as its intelligence and ops database input nodes at the TOCs of the Brigade (each Bn)/Bn group.A group of such TOC nodes are conected to one LAN node.In this manner an entire network of LAN nodes are dispersed in each State.The complete LAN is connected with the total AO WAN system..Now the total battlespace which comprises of all the affected NE States has as its information repository domain the WAN Servers.Each WAN NODE will cater to each State intelligence ops as well as all tactical combat ops(linked to all the TOCs of the State AO.)..  This entire system in its totality should be viewed as concentric circles.The outermost ring is the deployed sensors (or as I aim to achieve , organic company level-platoon level intelligence sections--that is boot level sensors);The next ring will be the individual TOCs and the DESK NCOs receipt/dissemination terminals.The inner ring will be the LAN chain of all the States; each LAN being comprised of all the sub-LANs of that State to which feeds come from all the State TOCs.All feeds from this inner LAN ring will be into the next inner ring - the WAN Network Main Server.In this manner we have overcome the probs of decentralized command and control of intelligence and tactical operations in a nonliner distributed wide battlespace (it is not possible for every tactical unit to push upwards all intelligence and combat operation to higher headquarters in a very wide (State) area of operations , there is an inundation of information at Bde level intelligence section--it cannot manage easily even with intelligence detachments sporead out without the installation of Bn-level TACTICAL OPS CENTERS (and Company level organic intelligence cells created out of a team of non-int occupational speciality personnel--like the infantry soldiers,MP,patrols-- trained in basic tactical questioning,elicitation,observation and surveillance skills.The TOCs bring in an element of control and ease of information push to much lower levels than higher HQs for the tactical units deployed.In each sub-sector of each AO within each sub-region of each State the tactical units find it easy to push information to the locally installed TOC.The group of TOCs in the State can exchange information laterally among themselves and get a clear picture of all activities and trends.This helps to give the Bde Commander a clear common operating picture COP--which means the exact ground situation without being inundated with unnecessary or conflicting or excessive intelligence information.(In my CFET web portal I have detailed the battle-staff functions of each TOC wherein cases like deconfliction , technical control of int/counterint TTPs,updating and management of source network and source registries,requirement,collection assets management and collection management,administrative control,ops management,dissemination--all being handled by NCOs and a JCO with one battle Captain).This TOC network through the Overall LAN system of each State can effectively push/pull information from the main WAN Network.Thus we find that an effective command and control of the entire NE intelligence and tactical combat operations is ensured due to the availability of intelligence and combat information at the boot level (Company level int capability and lower) ,TOC level , State level (LAN System) and the entire Battlespace (NE) Level THROUGH THE MAIN WAN NETWORK(Each Bde Level).All Bde's will have their own network system on similar grounds in their AO with the main linkages to the DIV MAIN INT/OPS DATABASE SERVER.This is what I will call the Div Ops and Intelligence Net (the main WAN System).

During deployment for combat the Bn intelligence section int officer can enter this Div NET AND CAN ACCESS THE  division ops and intelligence activities if necessary.He can thus maintain a current intelligence situation report/map within the Bn TOC reflecting the current enemy situation.At every level trends,pattern recognition , analytical (link diagramming,forecasting trends,association mapping,time series analysis,PERT/CPM applied to operations etc)software can be used to manipulate and research information on the servers.Such information may be pushed down on request to operational/tactical levels.



(To be elaborated more in subsequent pages....,with detailed intelligence requirements,asset management and  collection management , Company int cells for each specific adversary function/activity/ops,insertion of collected information to each soldier terminal , push to sector TOC , push to sector LAN , uploaded to MAIN WAN SERVER..trend recognition , analysis and pattern recognition software installation on server to work on all information contained in servers , and querying syntax specifically designed from boot level to seniormost oficers --with the ''need to know'' clearance)

 


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