Actionable Intelligence: What Works?

Abstract

The basis of all military action is knowing what your "opponent" is strategizing and planning, so that you can conduct the most successful mission possible and with the least amount of casualties. Actionable intelligence is knowing the who, what, when, where and why of a situation and there are several ways of obtaining that knowledge, some more effective than others. This research will show that while there are various techniques and strategies that the military uses to obtain intelligence, the most effective way to stay on top of obtaining intelligence is to utilize the most up to date and relevant technology placing less focus on unnecessary ground missions or hand to hand combat. Furthermore, the research will show that it is also effective to share knowledge across our armed forces and to use the most current technology to come up with the best and most effective tactical plan to defeat the enemy. With the advances we have made in technology there is no reason to be sending troops into battle blindly or to not communicate among agencies and various branches of the military to work together for a common goal.

Introduction

Actionable intelligence "provides Commanders and Soldiers a high level of shared situational understanding, delivered with speed, accuracy, and timeliness necessary to operate at their highest potential and conduct successful operations" according to the official homepage of the US Army. In other words, actionable intelligence is how the troops gain an advantage on the "enemy" to ensure that an operation is successful. While there are many different ways of gaining intelligence, the two that the research focuses on are interrogations, which are done after a prisoner of the other side is captured and detained, and using technology to gain knowledge. The research will show that prisoners of war and interrogating are becoming more frowned upon and the less successful approach to...