Final Question about Intelligence

[ArmyBrat]

Throughout the entire last gongshow of a post, my single question about intelligence gathering still eludes me.

How exactly do the intelligence units, gather intelligence on the enemy?

Weather and terrain is simple enough, with weather satellites, maps, radar, etc, etc. But, how does an intelligence unit actually collect data on the enemy?

Are intelligence officers deployed to foreign countries to discreetly gather intelligence on their military capabilities? Is it strictly collected by satellites? How does an intelligence unit gather the information in a way that is useable to commanders and politicians alike?

 

[Ex Ranger Instructor]

I‘ll leave it to Clasper to answer most of your questions, except one: Canadian intelligence officers are not deployed overseas as spies. But, even if they were, do you really think that someone on such a board as this would really dish out all the super secret info regarding such activities?

 

[Korus]

It‘s not the easiest question to answer, as it depends entirley on the situation, and the type of intelligence organization.. Military Intelligence doesn‘t fill quite the same role as CSIS.

The Intelligence Branch website describes some sources.

Most of it is stuff that would not make an interesting movie.

 

[clasper]

Originally posted by ArmyBrat:
[qb]How does an intelligence unit gather the information in a way that is useable to commanders and politicians alike? [/qb]

Commanders and politicians typically want very different things, so it all starts with the first step of the int cycle, direction. You can read all about the wonderful int cycle at the link that Korus gave you.

Anyway, I‘ll give you two basic examples to go with. To help the commander figure out what the enemy is doing, one of the sources we use is the brigade ops net. Just listen to everything that is going on, and try to piece together the big picture of the enemy‘s intentions from all of the contact reports, patrol reports, etc. that come in. At the political level, a basic source would be an int op posted to an embassy (although these postings were dwindling when I was in the branch in the mid 90‘s- I don‘t know how common they are now). An int op posted to an embassy doesn‘t spy, or do anything covert. They‘ll just talk to the locals, read the newspapers, find out what‘s going on in their area of interest.

These are just two basic examples. Naturally, there are other sources out there, of varying degrees of usefulness, depending on the situation.

 

[Arctic Acorn]

Given todays security environment, I feel a little apprehensive answering a question like that, ESPECIALLY from someone who has no personal information on his profile, and won‘t even show where he‘s from, with 13 posts to his credit. If you‘re that keen on knowing, I have two suggestions for you.

1) If you are a military member you can look up the CF Pam on Field Intelligence on the DIN (It‘s all laid out there).

2) If your ArmyBrat handle is accurate, go ask your parents to look it up for you

I (honestly) hope that can point you in the right direction.

If there‘s any moderators out there listening, I‘d like to reccommend closing this thread for OPSEC reasons, just to err on the side of caution.