ATP-5-0-2-1 Staff Reference Guide Volume 1 Download
Page 123 of 440
Planning 07 December 2020 ATP 5-0.2-1 107 INFORMATION COLLECTION 2-312. This topic information is derived from ATP 2-01 and FM 3-55. 2-313. Information collection is an activity that synchronizes and integrates the planning and employment of sensors and assets as well as the processing, exploitation, and dissemination systems in direct support of current and future operations (FM 3-55). Information collection activities provide commanders with detailed, timely, and accurate intelligence, enabling them to visualize threat capabilities and vulnerabilities and to gain situational understanding. Information collected from multiple sources and analyzed becomes intelligence that provides answers to CCIRs as part of an evolving understanding of the AO. These activities contribute to the achievement of a timely and accurate common operational picture (COP). By answering the CCIRs, IC commanders can make informed decisions. This includes plan requirements and assess collection, task and direct collection, and execute collection. PLAN REQUIREMENTS AND ASSESS COLLECTION 2-314. The intelligence staff collaborates with the operations officer and the entire staff to receive and validate requirements for collection, prepare requirements planning tools, recommend collection assets and capabilities to the operations staff, and maintain synchronization as operations progress (see ATP 2-01 for a detailed discussion of this topic). TASK AND DIRECT COLLECTION 2-315. The operations officer, based on recommendations from the staff and guidance from the commander, tasks, directs, and when necessary, re-tasks IC assets (see chapter 4 of FM 3-55 for more information on tasking and directing IC). EXECUTE COLLECTION 2-316. Execute collection focuses on requirements tied to the execution of tactical missions, such as reconnaissance, surveillance, security, and other intelligence operations and based on the CCIRs. Collection activities acquire information about the threat and the AO and provide that information to intelligence processing and exploitation elements. Collection activities begin soon after receipt of mission and continue throughout preparation and execution of the operation. These activities do not cease at the end of a mission but continue as required. This allows the commander to focus combat power, execute current operations, and prepare for future operations simultaneously. Subtasks of collection execution areβ ξ Establish technical channels and provide guidance. ξ Collect and report information. ξ Establish a mission intelligence briefing and debriefing program. INFORMATION COLLECTION ACTIVITIES 2-317. Like many other staff processes, IC to close intelligence gaps is cyclical in nature and never complete. Identification of information still undiscovered, combined with a continuous influx of new information requirements, leads to continuous collection planning. In a similar vein, the gaps or new requirements that cause new collection planning lead to repositioning or re-tasking of collection assets. Reports resulting from an IC process are analyzed by the operations and intelligence sections, leading to "intelligence." Figure 2-31 on page 108 depicts IC activities. 2-318. Intelligence is the product resulting from the collection, processing, integration, evaluation, analysis, and interpretation of available information concerning foreign nations, hostile or potentially hostile forces or elements, or areas of actual or potential operations (JP 2-0). The term is also applied to activities that result in the product and to organizations engaged in those activities. Reconnaissance, security, intelligence operations, and surveillance are ways of gathering information, with the means ranging from national and joint collection capabilities to individual Soldier observations and reports. Intelligence products assist commanders and staffs in the decision-making process.