Operate to Know: An Operational and Intelligence for the Operational Level of War
Abstract
The thesis of this paper is that if the United States and its allies are to fight and win decisively against the complex adaptive adversaries of the twenty-first century, then knowing must become a primary operational activity. Intelligence must ascend from its diminished status to an equal pillar of action with operations, resourced and organized with equipment, processes, and intellectual skills to produce a continuous picture of the enemy and environment tied to forces that can rapidly exploit opportunities to generate more intelligence. The joint force faces a global security environment where adversaries neutralize American superiority in fire and maneuver by hiding and remaining untargetable-especially by avoiding open battle. Adversaries seek to make the environment inhospitable for U.S. forces--driving joint forces to fortified enclaves, marginalizing their influence, and placing them on the defensive. In this environment, the joint force must function differently: pulsing to understand the environment, then taking decisive action while being able to pace the intensity of operations to allow off-ramps for other instruments of national power to take the lead to meet national objectives. This thesis recommends the development of a joint operating concept that establishes the foundation for an aggressive knowing capability consisting of active observation with pulsing and continuous diagnostic feedback to create a continuous receive-respond, collect-pulse connection between intelligence and operations to pry, test, understand the environment, and then take decisive action.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 13, 2014
- Accession Number
- ADA600189
Entities
People
- Drew Cukor
Organizations
- National Defense University