text: Intelligence Operations
  STAFF CAPABILITY CONSIDERATIONS
  6-19. Intelligence operations are complex. The staff must know and consider the practical capabilities and
  limitations of all unit organic and allocated assets. Capability considerations include the following:
  ⚫ Range. Range deals with the collector’s ability to provide target coverage. It is important for the
  staff to consider mission range (duration and distance) and the sensor range (how close the collection
  asset must be to the target to collect against it).
  ⚫ Communications. The staff considers communications requirements from the asset to the CP. The
  staff determines the ability to maneuver, including transit and required collection time on specific
  NAIs and TAIs.
  ⚫ Day and night effectiveness. The staff considers factors such as available optics and any effects
  of thermal crossover.
  ⚫ Battery/Power source life. The staff considers how long the asset can collect and how often the
  battery/power source will have to be replenished to continue collection.
  ⚫ Bandwidth. The staff considers available bandwidth and prioritizes requirements to ensure
  information can be continuously transmitted and accessed.
  ⚫ Expendability of asset. The staff must consider the necessity to recover the collection asset or if
  it is expendable. What is the risk associated with emplacing and recovering the asset?
  ⚫ Technical characteristics. Each asset must consider time factors (such as set-up and tear-down
  times) for task accomplishment. Other technical characteristics include—
  ▪ Specific environmental threshold sensitivities for each collection asset that adversely affect
  or prohibit the effective use of both its platform and sensor (including factors such as
  terrain, weather, and soil composition).
  ▪ Environmental effects on the collection asset (including factors such as urban or rural terrain
  and soil composition).
  ▪ Whether the asset can continue to operate despite EA.
  ⚫ Reporting timeliness. Each asset is assigned an earliest time and a latest time information
  reporting is of value according to the information collection plan and its supporting matrix. Other
  timeliness factors include—
  ▪ How the asset transmits data/information in near real time, or how the asset should be
  recovered to collect the data.
  ▪ The established reporting criteria for each collection asset.
  ▪ How long it takes to disseminate collected information to each requester.
  ⚫ Geolocation accuracy. Accuracy implies reliability and precision. The asset must be capable of
  locating a target accurately enough to engage it with precision-guided munitions.
  ⚫ Durability. Durability includes factors such as—
  ▪ Weather effects on the employment of the collection asset (platform and sensor payload).
  ▪ EMS effects on the employment of the collection asset.
  ▪ Whether the prime mover can traverse restricted terrain.
  ⚫ Detecting threat activity. The staff considers whether the collection asset can detect the expected
  threat activity and whether the threat can deceive the collection capability.
  ⚫ Performance history. Experienced staff officers must know which information collection
  capabilities are typically reliable to meet the commander’s information requirements. Readiness
  rates, responsiveness, and accuracy, over time, may raise one collector’s reliability factor.
  ⚫ Intelligence PED. The staff considers whether the unit has the intelligence PED capacity, time,
  and architecture required to support planned and projected intelligence operations. Intelligence
  PED is required to conduct responsive intelligence operations to support dynamic maneuver and
  fire support missions. The following includes some considerations to optimize intelligence PED:
  ▪ Collect. To accomplish the mission, PED units and elements must have the capability to
  receive collection from systems.
  ▪ Process. The processing and fusion of collected data transform a larger volume of data into
  information and convert that information into a useable format.