Integrating Mission Type Orders into Operational Level Intelligence Collection

摘要

Over the past two years, the U.S. Air Force has embraced the concept of using mission type orders (MTOs) to facilitate intelligence collection with theater intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) assets. This thesis attempts to capture a fundamental understanding of precisely what ISR MTOs are within the general context of Auftragstaktik and MTOs writ large. It also offers discussion on how ISR MTOs differ from traditional intelligence collection tactics, techniques, and procedures. The researcher offers a single case study of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM, primarily constructed from qualitative interviews of deployed intelligence personnel, as a lens for viewing the utility of ISR MTOs at the operational level of war to answer whether or not it is a valid technique for supporting collection management. The thesis also addresses potential ways that ISR MTOs can be improved upon via a series of recommendations using the doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership, personnel, facilities, and interoperability construct.