text: Chapter 4
  * Key facilities.
  * Weapons of mass destruction research, production, and storage sites.
  * Toxic industrial material hazard sites and areas.
  * Decontamination sites.
  4-9. The MEB S-2 performs a detailed IPB for the support area and shares it with all tenants. A detailed IPB
  is critical for identification of threats present within the operational environment, to include health threats prevalent
  in the area to prevent or reduce individual and collective exposure. The detailed terrain analysis is key to terrain
  management. The designated unit must consider the defensibility of the terrain and primary unit missions
  when constructing new base camps and assigning units to existing base camps.
  INFORMATION COLLECTION
  4-10. 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). This activity implies a function, mission, or action and identifies
  the organization that performs it. Information collection activities are a synergistic whole analysis effort
  focused with emphasis on synchronizing and integrating all components and systems. Information collection
  integrates the intelligence and operations staff functions focused on answering commander’s critical
  information requirements. Joint doctrine refers to information collection combined with the operations
  process and the intelligence process as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. See FM 3-55 for
  additional information on information collection.
  4-11. Information collection is the acquisition of information and the provision of this information to
  processing elements. This includes the following:
  * Plan requirements and assess collection.
  * Task and direct collection.
  * Execute collection.
  4-12. Commanders integrate information collection to form an information collection plan that capitalizes
  on different capabilities. Information collection assets provide data and information. 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. The term is also applied to the activity that results in the product and to the
  organizations engaged in such activity. See JP 2-0.
  4-13. Intelligence staff inform commanders and staffs where and when to look. Reconnaissance, security,
  intelligence operations, and surveillance are the ways—with the means ranging from national and joint
  collection capabilities to individual Soldier observations and reports. The end is intelligence that supports the
  commander’s decision making. The result is successful execution and assessment of operations. This result
  depends on effective synchronization and integration of the information collection effort.
  4-14. The intelligence and operations staffs work together to collect, process, and analyze information about
  the enemy, other adversaries, climate, weather, terrain, population, and other civil considerations that affect
  operations throughout the support area. Intelligence relies on reconnaissance, security, intelligence
  operations, and surveillance for its data and information. Conversely, without intelligence, commanders and
  staffs do not know where or when to conduct reconnaissance, security, intelligence operations, or
  surveillance. The usefulness of the data collected depends on the processing and exploitation common to
  these activities.
  4-15. The MEB commander supports information collection requirements during the conduct of support area
  operations that may contribute to the commander’s critical information requirements; inform intelligence-
  led, time-sensitive operations; or shape support area operations. The conduct of information collection
  activities supports the commander’s understanding and visualization of the operations by identifying gaps in
  information, aligning assets and resources against them, and assessing the collected information and
  intelligence to inform the commander’s decisions. They also support the staff’s integrating processes during
  planning and execution. The direct result of the information collection effort is a coordinated plan that
  supports the operation.