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Accession Number:
ADA516799
Title:
Employing ISR SOF Best Practices
Descriptive Note:
Journal article
Corporate Author:
NATIONAL DEFENSE UNIV WASHINGTON DC INST FOR NATIONAL STRATEGIC STUDIES
Report Date:
2008-01-01
Pagination or Media Count:
7.0
Abstract:
Special operations forces SOF victories in the war on terror have driven a transformation in the relationship between operations and intelligence. Today, intelligence is operations. Perhaps the most famous example was the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The airstrike that killed Zarqawi was only a fraction of the effort to find and accurately target him.1 The true operational art behind that strike was a multidisciplined intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance ISR endeavor coupled with agile SOF that patiently laid bare the Zarqawi network and resulted in a find-fix-finish operation. It took more than 600 hours of ISR to track and observe the network that yielded the target.2 Airborne ISR was a critical and necessary piece, but it alone was not sufficient to target Zarqawi. Instead, it was focused and directed by a robust all-source intelligence network employing human intelligence HUMINT, detainee intelligence, and signals intelligence SIGINT. This collection and intelligence analysis was part of a network of personnel, systems, and mechanisms woven into the daily operations of and directed by a joint special operations task force JSOTF. The Zarqawi strike was merely the most publicized of hundreds of successful counternetwork operations that used the new combined arms team of operations and intelligence, which highlights surveillance and reconnaissance as its most effective tool.
Distribution Statement:
APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE
