Intelligence Fusion for Combined Operations

The U.S. Army and the national intelligence community are undergoing revolutionary changes in the way intelligence is gathered, processed, and disseminated. The introduction of automation into the U.S. military has brought the modern battlefield into the information age, driving the operational commander's quest for certainty and expectations for intelligence information to new heights. As we anticipate fighting the next war, we will require a system that shares with all commanders a common picture of the battlefield. When dealing with intelligence, we often find a huge information gap between the capabilities of the U.S. forces and those of our potential allies. This study investigates the requirements of a multinational intelligence fusion system for the force projection Army of the future. This thesis researches the current and emerging doctrine on intelligence in combined operations, the lessons learned from the most recent combined operations, the current state of intelligence fusion capabilities, and the C4I for the Warrior concept as the potential solution to meet the requirements of intelligence fusion for combined operations. The study concludes with a basic endorsement of the intelligence fusion concept envisioned in C4I for the Warrior with current intelligence information systems, such as Linked Operations-Intelligence Centers Europe (LOCE), as the baseline.