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:
- 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.
- Keep
a tab on all contingency funding and source-rewards programs.
- Identify threat
multidimensional collection capabilities and activities which are
geared against the unit.
- 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:
- Conduct
a counterintelligence review of the unit installation-physical security
- Evaluate security
programs of the command. Supervise these programs as they relate to
Command , personnel , information.
- Support to OPSEC
- Support to deception
practices as applied to units plans , intent and actions.
- Ascertain unit
vulnerabilities and advise accordingly
- 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. ____________________________________________ 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 _____________________________________ 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) · |