Information Overload: Impacts on Brigade Combat Team S-2 Current Operations Intelligence Analysts

Abstract

The availability of information has drastically increased in the Information Age increasing the risk of information overload. Information overload reduces a U.S. Army staff's ability to operationalize intelligence and a commander's capacity to make decisions. The amount of data and information that intelligence analysts must process, exploit, and disseminate has drastically increased over the past 30 years. The primary research question of this thesis is: how does information overload impact the current operations element within a BCT? The U.S. Army Intelligence Community (IC) must find ways to mitigate information overload and prevent intelligence analysts from sharing poorly analyzed data that only degrades the decision-making process. This thesis analyzed five brigades across four case studies including; Operation Desert Storm, Operation Anaconda, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Rock Move. The results of the study suggest that the information load increased following force modernization in the form of the modular brigade concept and that in the case of Operation Rock Move, information overload was present within the BCT current operations element.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 12, 2020
Accession Number
AD1124624

Entities

People

  • Brandon D. Doggette

Organizations

  • United States Army Command and General Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy
  • C4I
  • Human Systems
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Force Facilities
  • Aircrafts
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Department Of Defense
  • Information Systems
  • Intelligence Analysts
  • Intelligence Collection
  • Iraqi-War
  • Military Force Levels
  • Military History
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Psychology
  • Surveillance
  • United States Central Command
  • Unmanned Aerial Systems
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  • Urban Areas
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.
  • Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Autonomous Capabilities and Mission Reconnaissance.