text: Information Collection Foundations
  1-23. For effective information collection activities to occur, the staff must—
  * Provide relevant information and intelligence products to commanders and staffs.
  * Provide combat information to commanders.
  * Contribute to situational awareness and facilitate continuous situational understanding.
  * Develop a significant portion of the common operational picture (COP) vertically and
  horizontally among organizations, commanders, and staffs.
  * Support the commander’s visualization, permitting more effective mission command.
  * Answer the CCIRs.
  * Facilitate intelligence preparation of the battlefield (IPB).
  * Support effective, efficient, and accurate targeting.
  * Decrease risk for the unit.
  INFORMATION COLLECTION PLANNING
  1-24. Commanders and staffs continuously plan, task, and employ collection assets and forces to collect
  information. They request information and resources through higher echelons. This information and
  intelligence helps commanders turn decisions into actions.
  1-25. Information collection planning is crucial to mission success. The four fundamentals to plan,
  synchronize, and integrate information collection activities include:
  * An information collection effort driven by the commander.
  * Full staff participation in effective information collection synchronization and integration.
  * A collection capability, either organic or augmented by nonorganic resources, to conduct
  information collection.
  * A capability to analyze and produce actionable intelligence to conduct information collection.
  1-26. Commanders must quickly and clearly articulate their CCIRs to the staff during the information
  collection planning process. This enables the staff to facilitate the commander’s vision and decisionmaking
  by focusing on the CCIRs.
  STAFF INVOLVEMENT AND INPUT
  1-27. Effective information collection requires the entire staff’s involvement and input. This enables the
  intelligence staff to identify and assess information requirements and the operations staff to task and direct
  the effort.
  1-28. Conducting information collection activities requires a collection capability, either organic or
  augmented by nonorganic resources. Commanders use reconnaissance tasks, security operations,
  surveillance tasks, intelligence operations, and the skills of Soldiers to obtain information. All activities that
  help develop understanding of the AO are considered information collection activities. Planners must
  understand all collection assets and resources available to them and the procedures to request or task
  collection from those assets, resources, and organizations. (See chapter 5 for more information on
  information collection assets.)
  1-29. Conducting information collection activities requires an analytical capability to interpret information
  and produce actionable intelligence. The analyst’s ability to employ critical thinking and use multiple
  sources during intelligence analysis reduces uncertainty and helps solve problems not resolved using single
  source of information. This requires staff sections to understand the capabilities and limitations of assets to
  collect and report. The staff must also establish reporting guidelines to the collection assets.
  PRIMARY INFORMATION COLLECTION TASKS AND
  OPERATIONS
  1-30. Information collection includes all activities and operations that gather data and information used to
  create knowledge and support the commander’s requirements, situational understanding, and visualization.
  Commanders achieve information collection when they employ all collection tasks and operations together