Reserve support to IO: the 3431st MI Detachment [USAR] at NGIC - National Ground Intelligence Center

Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin, July-Sept, 2003 by Sherwin H. Terry, Jr.

The 3431st Military Intelligence Detachment (MID), U.S. Army Reserve (USAR), is one of 16 Army Reserve MIDs WARTRACEd to the National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) and supporting the Global War on Terrorism and Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. The 3431st MID is different from the usual MID, however, because it is a 45-person production group, rather than the classic 9-person detachment. Through this enlarged structure, the unit is providing support to NGIC and the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) in the realm of intelligence support to information operations (IO) and computer network operations (CNO).

MIDs Augment NGIC Support

NGIC is the Army's intelligence production activity located in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Center produces all-source ground-forces intelligence for a long list of customers that range from military research and development organizations, weapons developers, and senior Department of Defense decisionmakers to the operational forces in the field. Assisting in this daunting task are 16 MIDs WARTRACEd to the Center. The many talents they bring expand the specialized expertise and skills available among the almost 800 civilian and military employees of the Center. For example, some of these MIDs boast members with expertise in chemical and nuclear weapons, small arms, radar systems, or skills in assessing foreign national military infrastructures. During the last 18 months, the Army called these MIDs to active duty to add their talents to NGIC's expertise in support of the Global War on Terrorism and Operation IRAQI FREEDOM.

Structure of the 3431st MID

Among the 16 MIDs supporting NGIC is the 3431st MID, a production group that differs from other MIDs in that it actually comprises five integral 9-person detachments. In August 2001, the Department of the Army (DA) authorized a reorganization of the 3431st MID to an expanded composition resulting from earlier direction by Lieutenant General (LTG) Thomas Plewes, then Chief of the USAR. Learning that the mission of the 3431st is to assist NGIC's intelligence production in response to customers' IO and CNO requirements, LTG Plewes seized on the opportunity to reinforce that support with an enhanced Reserve unit tailored especially for the task.

In September 2001, in the midst of beginning to reorganize and to recruit the necessary personnel to outfit its new structure, the 3431st MID became embroiled in the Global War on Terrorism resulting from the terrorist attacks of September 11. Twenty-seven strong, the unit began a tour of active duty in October 2001 for one year. Unit members provided personnel for the IO mission at the 1st Information Operations Command (Land) (formerly called the Land Information Warfare Activity, or LIWA) at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and for IO intelligence production support to meet NGIC customers' needs. During their period of active duty, those members of the 3431st MID assigned to the 1st IO Command prepared assessments for IO Field Support Teams deployed with the U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, and those at NGIC published intelligence assessments addressing the command, control, and communications (C3) capabilities of transnational terrorist groups.

The period of unit activation all but halted the retailoring of the 3431st MID. Under the leadership of the Production Group Commander, Colonel Leslie Purser, that effort was reinvigorated. The Army is actively recruiting new members, particularly individuals with specific specialized skill sets in computer forensics; computer networking; network security; physics, math, and basic sciences; foreign area studies; and above all, an intelligence background. The personnel resourcing structure for each of the five detachments lists three commissioned officers (military occupational specialty [MOS] 35D, All-Source Intelligence Officer), a senior warrant officer (MOS 350B, All-Source Intelligence Technician), and five enlisted soldiers (MOS 96B, Intelligence Analyst) ranging in grade from E5 to E8. Due to the delayed restructuring, the production group has until September 2004 to reach full strength.

The Army tailored constitution of each of the five detachments of the 3431st to present a unique approach to the IO intelligence problem and how it will help NGIC to support customers' needs:

[] One detachment will examine the telecommunications systems of potential adversaries' ground forces and assess the capability of those networks to support computer network attacks that they might direct against the U.S. Army.

[] Another detachment is supporting NGIC's intelligence research and reporting about the technologies underpinning foreign IO and projecting where those technologies will lead in the next 5 to 15 years.

[] A third detachment is looking at adversaries' tactics, techniques, and procedures to assess a nation's or transnational group's intent to use CNO for insurgency or terrorism against the Army.

[] The fourth detachment, in addition to performing the functions of the Group headquarters, can provide a flexible production surge capability for the other detachments in the event that NGIC experiences an overload of IO tasking.