Army Intelligence support to Homeland Security

Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin, July-Sept, 2002 by Brad T. Andrew

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.

The U.S. Army Intelligence Vision applies to all future Army missions. Anticipation of asymmetric threats significantly shaped the Vision, and as such it provides the overarching construct for the application of Army Intelligence's core competencies in support of Homeland Security (HLS) and Homeland Defense (HLD), or HLS/HLD.

This is not to say that the Army Intelligence Vision focuses only on support to HLS/HLD. Rather, HLS/HLD support is an application of the Vision's components and Army Intelligence core competencies to these missions. The Vision and core competencies remain equally relevant to Army Intelligence support to the Legacy, Interim and Objective Forces throughout the entire spectrum of conflict, to include simultaneous major theater wars (MTWs) and small-scale contingencies (SSCs). The bottom line is the application of Army Intelligence tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) in the continental United States (CONUS), combined with its operations outside CONUS (OCONUS), and provides a seamless, global ability to identify and interdict threat activities aimed at the U.S. homeland and the fabric of our society. HLS cannot be confined to actions within the United States.

Army Intelligence contributes to the HLS/HLD mission by collecting, integrating and analyzing massive amounts of data and information on large numbers of seemingly diverse entities to predict what the threat intends, so that authorities can take action to prevent the threat activity before it occurs. In essence, Army Intelligence enables proactive actions rather than reaction to events in the execution of the HLS/HLD mission.

This article imparts a general understanding of how Army Intelligence provides its product--dominant knowledge--to combat leaders, installation commanders, and local law enforcement personnel at the point of decision as they conduct the HLS/HLD mission. As President George W. Bush said during the swearing-in ceremony for Governor Tom Ridge as the first Director of the Office of Homeland Security, "In the War on Terrorism, Knowledge is Power." Knowledge reduces risk or uncertainty for the decision maker, regardless of the echelon--squad leader through the President.

Overview of Army Transformation

The U.S. Army has an inherent obligation to protect CONUS as well as all U.S. interests worldwide. Army Transformation is an all-encompassing campaign that fundamentally overhauls the U.S. Army to ensure the Army fulfills these obligations. Transformation changes how the Army staffs, organizes, equips, and trains. It also modifies how the nation's leaders engage the Army as an instrument of U.S. foreign policy, how the Army defends the United States, and when required, how it fights and wins the nation's wars. In the Transformed Army, "dominant knowledge" provides the decision and action advantages essential for mission success. Army Intelligence provides the Transformed Army with the "knowledge edge."

Army Intelligence Enables Army Transformation and HLS Mission Success

Commanders have always sought a knowledge advantage to defeat enemies while minimizing their own losses, to include protecting their own countries and support bases. On tomorrow's battlefield, commanders must have knowledge about the battlespace unavailable to previous generations--knowledge which we must continually refresh. Army Intelligence will provide that knowledge. To achieve knowledge superiority and decision dominance in HLS, Army Intelligence must-

* Integrate national, joint, Service and law enforcement agencies' (LEA) intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities.

* Apply its predictive analysis expertise.

* Disseminate predictive intelligence down to the lowest levels of local government and law enforcement.

Army Intelligence will think globally and enable the HLS team to act locally!

Army Intelligence Support to HLS

Army Intelligence in support of HLS/HLD is 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. It operates globally, within a national, joint, and combined context, and leverages the capabilities and expertise of the U.S. Intelligence Community, friends and allies, LEAs, academia, media, and private industry to provide commanders focused, "near-certain," knowledge. Its core competencies are:

* Full-dimension protection, including protection in the physical and cyber-domains.

* Unique collection to cover information gaps.

* Integration of all intelligence and non-intelligence sensors and fusion (knowledge) centers to build the relevant "Red" and "Gray" (neutral, such as terrain and weather) pictures.

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