gence section attempts to minimize its
impact, but each unit turnover leads to
information loss. We wouldn’t accept
this mentality if we were dealing with
serialized gear. We don’t accept this
type of loss with our Marines’ administrative information. Yet during OIF
we’ve allowed it to happen with intelligence information in a combat environment. And this is with operations
occurring in a relatively static AO with
robust communications architecture in
place. Future operational scenarios,
whether they be rapidly developing
contingencies, fights against a more organized and unified insurgency, or an
austere expeditionary environment,
will be less forgiving of the loss of intelligence information.
Figure 3.
from one unit to the next in varying formats that are rarely easily searchable and
are not efficient for analysis or manipulation. Hundreds of files with important
information can easily be misplaced or
forgotten. It is not safe to assume that
reliefs in place (RIPs) at the company
level and below are completely conveying intelligence information.
The third assumption is that when
units conduct a RIP their common
higher headquarters can capture intelligence information in the level of detail required to provide adequate
knowledge to ensure informational
continuity. Once again, this is not the
case. Higher headquarters, by nature,
is removed from the fine-grained understanding of an area required to conduct a detailed intelligence preparation
of the battlespace. While the TFC
maintains many very accessible products, much of the information is out of
date, misinterpreted and, in some
cases, flat out wrong. This doesn’t reflect negligence or lack of effort on the
part of the TFC. It simply comes as a
result of the inevitable time lag and loss
of clarity as information travels from
reporting units to the Marine expedi-
tionary force with numerous analysts
adding their “spin” along the way.
The final assumption underlying
our current intelligence information
management system is that we will
have too little information regarding
the population, enemy, terrain, and
weather and that the most challenging
step in the intelligence cycle will be collection. The reality in MNF-W is that
we have tremendous amounts of information, but we fall short in how we
process that information once it is collected. Daily, units across the battlefield collect untold amounts of
intelligence information. The better we
manage the information we already
have, the more we can focus our collections and warfighting assets on satisfying genuine intelligence requirements
rather than recollecting information
that’s probably already been gathered.
If intelligence analysts and commanders can more efficiently access the information we already have, we can
more efficiently conduct analysis, ultimately speeding the intelligence operations cycle and generating tempo.
The loss of intelligence information
is almost an accepted fact. Each intelli-
Moving Toward a Shared Intelligence
Information Management System
We have the technology to overcome these disconnects. An important
shift has occurred during the Marine
Corps’ involvement in OIF. For the
first time, the Marine intelligence community has the software and communications architecture to enable a
shared intelligence information management system and to overcome the
loss and inefficiency associated with a
bottom-up driven intelligence information management architecture. The
Marine Corps’ most important information management enabler is Intel
Tracker/MarineLink, which combines
a database, user customizable forms,
geospatial display/mapping capabilities
and plotting, and pattern analysis features. The “meat” of the program is the
Intel Tracker database that is accessible
in basic text format via web browser.
The information in the program is
managed in a server architecture and is
accessible via standard hypertext
markup language protocol on websites
or via the MarineLink software program.
MarineLink is a quality interface
that allows information contained in
the Intel Tracker database to be displayed graphically over map data or
overhead imagery. (See Figure 3.)
There are other programs that do this,
