Marine Corps Gazette

error will be identified and corrected quickly. In the current system, where intelligence information products are generated by the hundreds, an erroneous piece of information can persist for months hidden in products generated by various headquarters. A common intelligence information database will bring the added advantage of a de-facto system of version control. Identification of old information and generation of collections taskings to update outdated or missing information will be obvious. In the current system, information is so fragmented that an analyst cannot even know if he has the most up-to-date information without a time-consuming research and verification effort.

Like any reorganization, the adjustment period will be painful and the argument will be made that a more organized intelligence information framework amounts to “ micromanage-ment” and limits subordinate initiative. But the Marine Corps has standardized systems to manage training, readiness, administrative, and logistical information for good reason. More efficient processing of intelligence information will allow us to make better use of intelligence personnel and enhance our efficiency even as the community expands.

Beyond OIF: Current and Future Expeditionary Operations

As the Marine Corps slowly reduces its footprint in Iraq but increases expeditionary presence in support of the “long war,” intelligence, combat arms, and support units will continue to collect, process, and analyze information that no other U.S. intelligence entities have access to. Security cooperation MAGTFs, Marine expeditionary units, and foreign military training units will all gather valuable information regarding personalities, events, infrastructure, and networks. We can also expect that concepts, such as distributed operations and enhanced company operations, will increasingly lead to small units operating independently of traditional intelligence support structures. These scenarios will require efficient

processing and capture of every piece of information we collect in order to build a knowledge base for potential future operations and to enable current operations. These scenarios will punish haphazard intelligence information management with lost tempo and lost opportunities.

Another benefit of a more standardized information management system is that it allows intelligence sections to train to manage information. If the information management system was relatively standard across the Marine Corps, intelligence sections could prepare to implement an information management scheme prior to entering an operational environment vice having to spend the initial months of a deployment adjusting to an unfamiliar

. . . information is so fragmented that an analyst cannot even know if he has the most up-to-dateinformation. . . .

information management system. In a future contingency environment, where a unit’s presence may be of short duration and characterized by high operational tempo, it will be important that intelligence sections have established and trained to information management systems prior to crossing the line of departure.

Though there is much room for improvement, MarineLink and Intel Tracker are the most promising initiatives to provide a systematic software framework for a global, Corps-wide intelligence information management system. They are adaptable and with continued improvements can serve as an information management tool across the full spectrum of conflict in both sustained and contingency operations. But making these systems work to serve the bottom-up intelligence

needs associated with successful expeditionary operations requires the Marine Corps to adopt a more organized approach to managing our intelligence information. This in turn requires some top-down standardization to our intelligence information management standing operating procedures and training.

Of course, if the Marine Corps is successful in creating an intelligence information management system, it leads to the question of how to integrate a Corps-wide information management architecture into joint and national databases. The answer probably lies in replicating the same processes it takes to put our own “house” in order. Regardless, effectively fixing our own intelligence information management system will enhance the Corps’ effectiveness as an expeditionary force in readiness and will enhance our ability to feed intelligence into national systems in support of the long war.

Notes

1. Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication2, Intelligence, Headquarters Marine Corps, Washington, DC, 1997, p. 5.

2. Ibid., p. 41.

3. Ibid., p. 8.

4. Training and Education Command MarineLink instructional materials may be found at https://www.intranet.tecom.usmc.mil/sites/mci s/focusareas/cic/referance%20material/forms/all items.aspx, accessed 17 April 2008.