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Commanders should view their staffs as a unified team when considering the IPB process. IPB is not just the S2's responsibility. The entire staff should contribute in their area of expertise. The intelligence section does not have the resources, people, or, frequently, the knowledge to conduct IPB by themselves.

OBSERVATION: Many units have the S2 section conduct all aspects of the IPB process without any help from the staff.

DISCUSSION: During most missions, the staff is waiting for the S2 to develop the enemy situation before the tactical decisionmaking process can begin. The staff should put this time to good use and assist the S2 in the development of the IPB products. Many staff officers can help the S2 in their areas of responsibility if directed to do so. Using the experience of the entire staff helps the command produce the best available IPB products.

LESSON(S): Commanders should direct their staffs to help the S2 in the development of IPB products. The XO should closely monitor the staff sections and ensure that they are providing assistance to the S2. The command and staff sections can contribute to the IPB process with the established responsibilities outlined below.

These are just some examples of how commanders can use other staff members to help the S2 develop IPB products. Using this technique should improve the quality and speed of IPB products developed because the entire staff covers every enemy BOS in great detail. If practiced frequently, the combined IPB effort of the staff should reduce the initial time required to conduct IPB and help the command in beginning the decisionmaking process in a more timely manner.

UNIT INTELLIGENCE TRAINING

OBSERVATION: Intelligence training is usually not emphasized during brigade, battalion, and company field training exercises.

DISCUSSION: Units do incorporate some form of intelligence training into their field training exercises. Units that do this tend to do these intelligence tasks well when they train at the combat training centers. Units that train intelligence tasks as individual tasks only tend to do worse at the CTCs. Units can benefit more from training exercises if intelligence is emphasized. Units still conduct the maneuver training that they need, but a couple of intelligence tasks are added into the training and emphasized. SALUTE reporting and patrol debriefs are just two examples of intelligence training that can be incorporated into any training scenario. The next few paragraphs discuss some ways that intelligence training can be incorporated into unit field training exercises at the brigade, battalion, and company levels.

LESSON(S):

BRIGADE LEVEL:The focus at the brigade level should be on training the brigade and battalion intelligence staffs. Battalion force-on-force and freeplay exercises are an excellent way for S2s to train on all intelligence functions. This allows both Battalion S2s to conduct IPB and collection management against a thinking enemy. The brigade's MI Battalion company team should also be incorporated into these type exercises. This gives the brigade S2 the opportunity to practice his collection management techniques and establish good SOPs with the MI company team. This added benefit can also be passed down to the battalions. Having these assets available during training exercises gives battalion S2s the opportunity to practice collection management techniques and work with the actual collectors. In this way, S2s can better understand the capabilities and limitations of these collection assets and the proficiency of the soldiers that operate these systems. During AARs, the opposing S2s should brief "what they thought happened" before the S3s or commanders brief what actually happened. In this way, the S2s can gauge how well they developed the threat situation for their respective commanders. The brigade S2 should also hold a separate AAR for intelligence units and collection assets. The S2 can address intelligence shortcomings and strengths for each unit.

Brigade S2s should also establish a training plan for all brigade intelligence assets. Earlier in this newsletter, numerous data bases and threat models were discussed. Brigade S2s should take this approach and divide possible contingency areas among the subordinate units within the brigade. Taking this approach allows the brigade to develop all the intelligence products that it requires and ensures that work is not duplicated. The brigade S2 should prioritize this work list based on guidance from the brigade commander. Another area that the brigade S2 should consider training is the intelligence SOPs that the unit has established. This type training solves all of the problems in regards to formats and varying quality of intelligence products that are produced at both the brigade and battalion levels.

BATTALION LEVEL: For battalion FTXs, the S2 should concentrate on battalion internal SOPs. The S2 needs to work very closely with the unit's scout platoon. He should deploy with the scout platoon and observe and participate in as much training as possible. The S2 should work very closely with the scout platoon leader as the scout platoon mission-essential task list (METL) is developed. The S2 should ensure that most of the scout platoon's METL is oriented on intelligence tasks. A major topic of training should be intelligence reporting. The SALUTE report has proved its worth on more than one occasion, but many units do not properly train on using this report. If used properly, this report contains all the pertinent intelligence information that needs to be reported. As mentioned earlier, battalion FTXs are another opportunity for S2s to practice the deployment of MI battalion assets. Most MI company team assets could easily be incorporated into any battalion FTX. Commanders should also train their S2s to maintain the enemy situation when the TOC "jumps." Most intelligence sections are understaffed, and it is a major task for them to maintain the enemy situation when the TAC is deployed while the TOC is "jumping."

COMPANY LEVEL: S2s very rarely get involved with company training. In most cases, this is a missed opportunity. The S2 should try to get personnel from his intelligence section to participate in company training events. Many company commanders welcome the opportunity to have a trained intelligence soldier with them in their company headquarters. With these intelligence soldiers participating in company training, there is an opportunity to "push" intelligence training. The S2 participant can help teach the company's leaders IPB and show why intelligence reporting is critical to the battalion's mission. The S2 himself needs to be "out on the line" with the companies. If companies are participating in force-on-force exercises, the S2 can split his section and augment company headquarters and practice their IPB skills. This can be a very valuable lesson to S2 personnel because they can compare their situation templates and terrain analysis products with what is actually on the ground. Debriefing patrols is another area that can be practiced at this level. This serves two purposes. First, it allows S2s to practice their debriefing skills. Second, patrol debriefings focus company patrols on the types of information that the S2 is looking for to support intelligence operations. This teaches the patrols to look for specific information that the S2 needs. Often, many patrols do not understand exactly what they are supposed to report. With this type training, S2s can practice developing indicators and phrasing them in a way that patrols can understand. While working directly with company line units, the S2 can emphasize correct and timely intelligence reporting. The use of the SALUTE report is critical. S2s can also use MI battalion assets to augment company training. A typical example is augmenting a company with a GSR team. This helps both the intelligence unit and the company to gain an appreciation of each other's capabilities. In most cases, the MI battalion has a specific slice that it can provide to each brigade. If the same personnel participate with the same units, then a working relationship can be fostered.

S2 SECTION INTELLIGENCE TRAINING

A main problem that many intelligence sections face is time to train the intelligence personnel within their sections. With many intelligence sections undermanned, S2s concentrate on just trying to conduct the daily operations that the intelligence section must do in a garrison environment. Although these tasks are important, they will probably not get someone killed. However, if the S2 has an untrained intelligence section in a combat environment, many good soldiers could die because the intelligence section failed to do their mission. Therefore, the S2 should focus on the section's warfighting skills. The S2 should allocate sufficient time to train the intelligence personnel in his section on intelligence skills needed to support the commander in the field. Often, the S2 thinks that he can do all of the required intelligence products by himself. However, he cannot. If the S2 section does not work together to develop IPB products, the unit usually fails because this causes unneeded delays in the tactical decisionmaking process. It also impacts the unit because other personnel are not able to pick up the slack when the S2 is not available. Different S2 sections are at different levels of training. The first thing an S2 needs to do when he arrives at a unit is assess the capabilities of his section. As a minimum, every member of the intelligence section needs to be able to:

• Review intelligence holdings and reports to identify gaps.
• Maintain intelligence journal and the journal file.
• Prepare and maintain situation maps and associated overlays.
• Maintain order of battle workbook and files.
• Organize intelligence files.
• Integrate incoming information into current holdings.
• Assist in the preparation and presentation of intelligence briefings.
• Process all-source intelligence information to develop and update threat data base.
• Develop combined obstacles overlay.
• Develop avenues of approach using modified combined obstacles overlay.
• Determine mobility corridors within identified avenues of approach.
• Identify and list information gaps (PIR and IR) for a specific operation.
• Prepare a listing of indicators for each PIR and IR for a specific operation.
• Prepare draft orders and requests to support the collection effort.
• Evaluate incoming information in accordance with indicators.
• Draft intelligence reports.
• Develop doctrinal templates for threat evaluation.
• Prioritize avenues of approach to size, directness, and length.
• Develop situation templates.
• Identify decision points.
• Develop event templates and event analysis matrix based on situation templates.
• Identify and annotate target area of interest and named area of interest.
• Compute time movement capabilities between named areas of interest.
• Determine threat probable courses of action.
• Prioritize threat courses of action according to probability of adoption.
• Develop decision support template.

The final portion of this newsletter will focus on the development of the Decision Support Template (DST). Although the DST is not the responsibility of the S2, the S2 provides most of the products that are required to develop the DST.

DECISION SUPPORT TEMPLATE (DST) DEVELOPMENT

Units at the CTCs experience many problems developing the DST. The planning process often ends with the development of a synchronization matrix. The synchronization matrix alone does little to assist the commander in identifying potential decision points throughout the battle. A synchronization matrix, coupled with a decision support template, can assist the commander in identifying and anticipating decisions on the battlefield. The development of the decision support template begins early in the IPB process. It is a systematic approach to detect the critical events on the battlefield and the reactions or decisions that both friendly and enemy commanders must make to accomplish their missions. The IPB process provides the framework to predict where, when, and what probable decisions friendly and enemy units make as they interact on the battlefield.

This section presents and explains a six-step process designed to assist units in understanding and developing DSTs. The six steps are:

• Step No. 1 - Modified Combined Obstacle Overlay (MCOO)/Avenue of Approach (AA) Overlay Development

• Step No. 2 - Enemy Situation Template (SITEMP) Development

• Step No. 3 - Event Template (EVENTEMP) Development

• Step No. 4 - Targeted Area of Interest (TAI) Development

• Step No. 5 - Friendly Course of Action (COA) Development

• Step No. 6 - Decision Point and Critical Event Development

The development of a DST uses products developed throughout the entire planning process. It is not something that is exclusively done after the plan is developed. The goal is to use products that are previously developed during the planning process and create a useful tool that can help the commander make decisions at critical points on the battlefield.

STEP No. 1 - Modified Combined Obstacle Overlay (MCOO)/Avenue of Approach (AA) Overlay Development

The first step in the development of the DST is the development of the modified combined obstacles overlay. The MCOO then enables the S2 to develop an AA overlay identifying threat avenues of approach. The MCOO and avenues of approach assist the commander and staff in identifying options that are available to both the friendly and enemy commander concerning maneuver. The AA overlay will be used throughout the DST development process, and will eventually become the DST.

STEP No. 2 - Enemy Situation Template (SITEMP) Development

The second step in the DST development process is the development of the enemy SITEMPs. Time may preclude the development of multiple enemy COAs, but at least two most probable and most dangerous COAs should be considered. The commander should provide the S2 with guidance as he develops his SITEMPS. This guidance may include the number of enemy COAs that he should develop, or other specific aspects the S2 should consider. The S2 should develop each COA in the same amount of detail. Each COA should address:

• Who? - what element
• What? - type of operation
• When? - time the action will begin
• Where? - sector, zone, avenue of approach, or objectives the enemy will use.
• How? - method the enemy will use to employ his assets.

Each COA should include a list of HVTs that the staff uses in the wargaming and targeting process. The set of enemy COAs provides a basis for formulating friendly COAs.

STEP No. 3 - Event Template (EVENTEMP) Development

The development of the Event Template (EVENTEMP) is the third step in the DST development process. As the S2 develops each enemy SITEMP, he should mentally wargame each enemy COA and identify those locations where enemy activity in each COA helps distinguish that specific COA from the others. These areas become named areas of interest (NAIs) for each SITEMP. The SITEMPS are then placed individually under the AA overlay. The NAIs from each enemy SITEMP are then transferred to the AA overlay. The S2 should focus on those NAIs that assists him in determining and identifying which COA the enemy selects. NAIs that are common to all COAs serve no purpose. This AA overlay now becomes the EVENTEMP. This EVENTEMP can also serve as a guide in the development of the collection and R&S plan. It depicts when and where to collect information.

STEP No. 4 - Targeted Area of Interest (TAI) Development

The addition of targeted areas of interest (TAIs) is the next step of the DST development process. Incorporating TAIs into the DST development process is identical to step 3. As the S2 develops each enemy SITEMP, he must identify those locations and events where the enemy may employ potential High Value Targets (HVTs). These areas become TAIs and are marked on each individual SITEMP. These TAI overlays are then placed individually under the AA/EVENTEMP (overlay #2) and the TAI s are copied onto overlay #2. TAIs are defined as points or areas where the friendly commander can influence the action by fire and/or maneuver.

STEP No. 5 - Friendly Course of Action (COA) Development

The fifth step in developing the DST is friendly COA development. The staff develops friendly COAs based on the commander's guidance and the facts and assumptions identified during IPB and mission analysis. The commander's guidance provides a basis for the initial forces array needed to counter the enemy's actions. The S2's role in friendly COA development is to ensure that each friendly COA takes advantage of the opportunities that are offered by the environment (weapons firing lines, best defensive terrain, intervisibility lines) and the threat situation (enemy weaknesses).

STEP No. 6 - Decision Point and Critical Event Development

The sixth step in the DST developmental process is to identify decision points throughout the battlefield. This takes place when the staff wargames the enemy and friendly COAs. The TAI/event template is placed over the friendly and enemy COA overlays. As the staff wargames the COAs, a recorder, usually the assistant S3/S2, captures the results of this wargaming process in a synchronization matrix. During the battle, the staff identifies all the critical events, locations, times and decisions that both friendly and enemy commanders must make. As the staff proceeds through the action-reaction-counteraction drill, this information is added to the TAI/event template. At the completion of the wargaming process, the TAI/event template becomes the DST. The DST should contain the same information as the synchronization matrix, but in a graphic form.

Section V: IPB and the Targeting Process

Acknowledgements