Army Intelligence Master Plan AIMP: The view from the future Army Intelligence Transformation - Leadership Notes

Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin, April-June, 2002 by Keith J. Masback

(Note: The Army Intelligence Master Plan (AIMP) supports the senior Army Intelligence leadership by envisioning and documenting the future. The AIMP brings vision to reality by developing assessments and roadmaps to transition the current force to the future force. These assessments and roadmaps, taken collectively, form an Army Intelligence Synchronization and Action Plan that addresses the doctrine, training, leadership, organization, materiel, soldier, and policy (DTLOMS-P) implications of the envisioned future. The Army Intelligence Vision complements and supports the Army Vision while the practical aspects of its development are drawn from soldiers, noncommissioned officers, and officers conducting intelligence operations around the world. Inherent in the challenge of "visioning" is developing a view with enough substance to make it real, yet sufficiently broad to cover unforeseen changes in the operating environment or threat.

At its core the AIMP constantly seeks to answer the twin questions of "Where are we going?" and, "How do we get there?" The AIMP is about change and for most people, change is hard. This is the first in a continuing series of articles from the Director of the Army Intelligence Master Plan that seeks to lay out how the AIMP Directorate sees the future and what some of the more controversial aspects of getting to that future might be.)

In support of senior Army Intelligence leadership and the Army's Transformation Plan, the AIMP recently published a vision and implementation plan to transform Army Intelligence. The Army Intelligence Transformation Campaign Plan (Al-TCP) establishes a common framework for understanding and guiding Army Intelligence Transformation. Army Transformation drives and is the focus of the Al-TCP, which responds directly to the Objective Force requirement for nearperfect situational awareness to enable decisive operations. It presents a set of high-level goals as the conceptual framework for the coherent transformation of Army Intelligence. The Al-TCP adds substance to vision via a detailed analysis of the ability of Army Intelligence to support Objective Force operations. Current Intelligence Discipline Assessments (CIDAs) add detail to the Al-TCP.

CIDAs define discipline-specific Army Intelligence concepts and capabilities on the strategic planning horizon as they respond to and integrate national security strategy (NSS), national military strategy (NMS), and Intelligence Community planning with emerging Army doctrine. The individual assessments trace changing capabilities from the current baseline through the Future Years Defense Program (FYDP), the 2015 Army Intelligence force, to realization of Army Objective Force capabilities.

In the Objective Force era, Army Intelligence will be a globally focused, rapidly deployable, knowledge-based force composed of expert personnel harnessing the collaborative, analytical, communications, and presentation power of modern information technology to support leaders at the point of decision. Army Intelligence core competencies consist of--

* Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) integration and synchronization of all ISR sensors to build the enemy forces, terrain, and weather pictures.

* Unique collection to cover information gaps.

* Analysis to transform data into information and information into knowledge.

* Presentation of knowledge in a format and manner that enables the commander's understanding.

* Full-dimension protection of physical and cyber domains.

World-class soldiers, Department of the Army civilians, and Defense contractors are the foundation of transformed Army Intelligence. The energy and vision to transform depends on Army Intelligence sustaining the world's premier workforce. Transformed Army Intelligence conducts sustained, continuous, real-world intelligence operations in collaboration with joint, national, and combined intelligence organizations to build the knowledge base and establish the context for future force employment. On a daily basis, the Army Intelligence force develops the knowledge required to enable Objective Force success. Upon notification of impending force deployment, the effort focuses on rapidly assembling knowledge by linking relevant tactical through national intelligence providers in virtual collaboration. Army Intelligence leaders at all levels adaptively force package intelligence capabilities in response to requirements forward.

Ironically, the scheduled major public unveiling of the Army Intelligence transformation vision and associated campaign plan by the Army's G2 (Deputy Chief of Staff, Intelligence [DCSINT]) Lieutenant General Robert W. Noonan, Jr., was to be at the Army Worldwide Intelligence Conferenceon 11 Septermber 2001. The attack by transnational terrorists on the United States caused the scaling back of the public unveiling as attentions and interest rapidly refocused on the changed operational environment. In the aftermath of September 11, the AIMP Directorate was charged with evaluation of the Army Intelligence Vision for its applicability to the changed environment and in particular to the Homeland Security challenge. The AIMP rapidly convened Homeland Security Conferences at both the action officer and retired/former Army Intelligence senior leader levels. As a result of our post-September 11 activities, we concluded that the Army Intelligence Vision was broad enough to cover the changed circumstances but that we w ould need to reinterpret its elements to focus specifically on--