LinkedIn · Oct 1, 2023
US Army are redefining Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) in the Intelligence Community (IC)—here’s what allies & partners can learn:
1. 𝐀 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐬 𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐓.
Lieutenant General (LTG) Potter, whilst running Army Intelligence globally, has been a champion for OSINT, calling it a foundational intelligence discipline and intelligence of first resort—a discipline that tips and cues other capabilities. While J2 of US European command following the 1st Russia-Ukraine war, LTG Potter experienced first hand the value of OSINT—recalling that some of the best intelligence was OSINT.
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2. 𝐀 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐓.
Anything worth doing in Army needs a strategy—that’s how you get enterprise buy in. Their strategy aims are:
Synchronising Army OSINT,
Resourcing for OSINT, and
Equipping for OSINT.
They’re delivering along four lines of effort:
People: Building OSINT teams into army organisations at a structural level and training soldiers over a career lifecycle for both competition and conflict phases.
Modernisation: Modernise everything: architecture, training, equipment, policies.
Readiness: Centred on exercising—doing home station OSINT training with real world or scenario driven information or data, so that prior to deployment soldiers are trained.
Allies and partners: Army operates jointly, so identifying where capabilities compliment or can be aligned, and how OSINT can be shared and disseminated in near real time.
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3. 𝐃𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐚 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦—𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐠𝐨 𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐥.
Piecemeal doesn’t solve the problem. Modernising architecture and getting intel in near real time to the tactical edge of the war fighter doesn’t matter if you haven't built the teams, trained them, or set the policy and regulation. It feels bigger, slower and more expensive to go simultaneously, but it ends up cheaper.
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4. 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭: 𝐆𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐓 𝐚𝐧𝐝 Publicly Available Information (PAI) 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐞𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞.
Getting OSINT to the tactical edge of the warfighter and into a Commanders Common Operating Picture in near real time, is a key reason for looking at the entire intelligence process.
To facilitate this, they have two categories of PAI. Intelligence personnel using PAI for OSINT have strict rules and guidelines. Operators that aren't serving Intel requirements, can use PAI for research.
A new dissemination capability, a combination of Nipper (an unclassified email system) and a Cross Domain Solution, will bring others in, send info out, and get intel to the edge.
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