ATP-5-0-2-1 Staff Reference Guide Volume 1 Download
Page 97 of 440
Planning 07 December 2020 ATP 5-0.2-1 81 STEP 2. DESCRIBE THE ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS ON OPERATIONS AND DESCRIBE THE EFFECTS ON OPERATIONS 2-249. Once the intelligence staff has completed Step 1 of IPB, the staff identifies significant characteristics of an operational environment related to enemy, terrain, weather, and civil considerations. Step 2 of IPB describes how these characteristics affect friendly operations. The intelligence staff also describes how terrain, weather, civil considerations, and friendly forces affect enemy forces. Their evaluation focuses on the general capabilities of each force until threat COAs are developed in Step 4 of IPB. Friendly COAs are developed later in the MDMP. Finally, the entire staff determines the impact and effects of friendly and enemy force actions on a population. 2-250. If the intelligence staff does not have the information it needs to form conclusions, it uses assumptions to fill information gaps, while ensuring the commander understands when assumptions are used in place of fact to form conclusions and when those assumptions are expected to be confirmed (see figure 2-18 on page 82 for a depiction of Step 2 of the IPB process).