Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin - Federation of American ...

with others involved in targeting in order to ensure they
maintain a common operating picture.
The COIN Targeting Process
The phases of the targeting process vary from conventional
doctrine. Rather than Decide, Detect, Deliver,
Assess, the process often changes to Detect, Decide,
Deliver, Assess. This alteration of the process was briefly
outlined by Captain Brian Gellman in “Lessons Learned
from OIF: An SF Battalion S2’s Perspective.” 1 Intelligence
personnel in Iraq generally detect a wide variety of targets
at any given time. They have to work with other personnel
involved in the targeting process in order to prioritize
which targets to expend resources on, how to expend
those resources, and to make changes to the collection
plan in order to support the brigade’s priorities.
A Soldier passes out pro-coalition flyers to the citizens of Fallujah,
Iraq, during Operation Salm.
Detect
The Detect phase, constantly ongoing and similar to Intelligence
Preparation of the Battlefield (IPB), is done on
a continual basis and requires a great deal of analytical
work by tactical intelligence personnel. The S2 and the
Analysis and Control Team (ACT) (in legacy brigades that
still have an ACT) have to go through reams of all-source
intelligence reporting to determine the validity of threats
and how important different potential targets actually are.
This requires an understanding of tribal networks, social
networks, insurgent networks, insurgent actions, and
community atmospherics. Products that aid in this are link
diagrams and “target folders” containing summaries of information
on a target and the reporting associated with
the target.
Complicating the task is the fact that people will make
false claims against individuals they do not like and may
also misrepresent themselves as having more influence
than they actually do. This means that multiple source
reporting is necessary to ensure that a target is really a
target. In addition, there are multiple kinds of targets that
can be identified, and not all of them are the enemy. The
brigade will also have to target its CMOs in order to ensure
they have the desired effects. The kinds of targets a
unit will prosecute can be broadly differentiated as target
personalities and target areas.
Target Personalities (also called HVTs or High Value Individuals)
� Kinetic targets: insurgents or leaders who can be captured
or killed.
Non-kinetic targets: personnel who can be engaged
through negotiation, meetings, contracts, information
operations (IO), etc.
Target Areas
A technique for simplifying the Detect phase is to split
up targeting tasks by echelon. For instance, a maneuver
battalion would be responsible for tracking target personalities
such as cell leaders and below, localized community
or city leaders and below, and area targets within their
area of operations (AO). The brigade would have responsibility
for tracking insurgents from the cell leader to facilitator
or regional leader level, community leaders up to
the provincial level, and area targets that cross battalion
boundaries. This separation of tracking greatly lessens
the load of battalion and brigade S2 sections and ensures
that they are still capable of supporting the targeting decisions
of their commanders.
It is also very beneficial to have an officer or noncommissioned
officer in the S2 section or the ACT who does
targeting and plans full time. This soldier should not be
responsible for day-to-day operations, but focused completely
on identifying and keeping track of targets. This
allows them the time to sift through the large amount of
reporting coming in daily, analyzing it appropriately, continuously
fusing the information with other members of the
targeting cell, and considering the next move of enemy
personnel. Poor target identification leads to wasted effort
by soldiers in the field as they raid the wrong house or
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� Areas controlled by insurgents.
� Areas where insurgents commonly operate.
� CMO opportunities, areas where the population may
be receptive to CA projects or PSYOP.