text: Chapter 5
  Table 5-3. Military decisionmaking process and engineer staff running estimates (continued)
  Military Decisionmaking Process Engineer Staff Running Estimate
  COA analysis. War-game and refine the engineer plan.
  COA comparison. Recommend a COA.
  COA approval. Finalize the engineer plan.
  Orders production, dissemination, and transition. Create the input to the basic operation order.
  • Scheme of engineer operations.
  • Essential tasks for M/CM/S.
  • Subunit instructions.
  • Coordinating instructions.
  • Engineer annex and appendixes.
  Legend:
  CCIR commander’s critical information requirements
  COA course of action
  EEFI essential elements of friendly information
  IPB intelligence preparation of the battlefield
  M/CM/S mobility, countermobility, and survivability
  INTELLIGENCE PREPARATION OF THE BATTLEFIELD
  IPB is an integrating process and is critical to the success of planning. IPB is a systematic process of
  analyzing the mission variables of enemy, terrain, weather, and civil considerations in an area of interest to
  determine their effect on operations. To be effective, IPB must—
  * Accurately define the commander’s area of interest to focus collection and analysis on the relevant
  aspects of the mission variables of enemy, terrain, weather, and civil considerations. Relevant is
  defined as having significant effect on friendly and threat operations.
  * Describe how each of these four variables affect friendly operations and how terrain, weather, and
  civil considerations affect the enemy.
  * Provide the IPB products necessary to aid each step of the MDMP in accordance with the planning
  timelines and guidance provided by the commander.
  * Determine how the interactions of friendly forces, enemy forces, and indigenous populations
  affect each other to continually create outcomes that affect friendly operations. This aspect of IPB
  is not the sole responsibility of the intelligence staff. This complex analysis involves the
  commander and the entire staff working together to determine these effects.
  IPB is most effective and best aids the commander’s decision making when the intelligence staff
  integrates the expertise of the other staff and supporting elements into its analysis. The engineer must
  understand the S-2 threat capabilities statement and situation template to analyze enemy engineer capabilities.
  Engineer reconnaissance may be required to support IPB, and the engineer staff must be proactive in
  recognizing these requirements and tasking the appropriate engineer elements. Geospatial engineers provide
  the necessary tools and expertise to describe, analyze, and visualize the terrain so that commanders, staffs,
  and subordinate echelons can make better informed decisions. The following are the four steps of IPB:
  * Step 1. Define the OE. Defining the OE results in the identification of significant characteristics
  of the OE as they relate to enemy, terrain, weather, and civil considerations that can affect friendly
  and enemy operations. This step also results in the identification of gaps in current intelligence
  holdings.
  * Step 2. Describe environmental effects on operations. The staff describes how these
  characteristics affect friendly operations. The intelligence staff also describes how terrain,
  weather, civil considerations, and friendly forces affect enemy forces. Finally, the entire staff
  determines the impact and how it affects the population of friendly and enemy force actions.