Intelligence Support to Strategic Exercises

By: COL Sherry Stearns-Boles, CDR Arthur S. de Leon, Chris G. Marshall, Kris A. Young, and Wayne Hugar

NDIC Exercise Participation.  Students and faculty members from the National Defense Intelligence College (NDIC) participated in 4 major joint planning exercises conducted at the war colleges and the Pacific Command.  Operating in joint environments, the students all played key roles in providing intelligence support for each given scenario and experienced firsthand the importance of intelligence in the planning and interagency processes.

Air War College:  The NDIC participated for the first time in the Air War College’s (AWC) Strategic Exercise Global Challenge from 4-14 May 2010 at Maxwell Air Force Base at the Air Force Wargaming Institute (AFWI) in Montgomery, Alabama.  Fourteen NDIC students integrated with the current AWC students and faculty as intelligence role players and/or white cell intelligence controllers.  The NDIC students were accompanied by two NDIC faculty and staff members for facilitation and observation.  The structure of the wargame included 3 Worlds, each with a National Security Council cell, Joint Staff cell, and the following Combatant Command cells – PACOM, CENTCOM, NORTHCOM, and AFRICOM.  Student players, white cell controllers, and AWC faculty leads manned each cell.  The white cell was manned by controllers.  Initial Joint Intelligence Preparation of the Environment (JIPOE) briefs for each cell were provided by the NDIC students in each COCOM cell.  The students learned about the joint planning process and prepared a JIPOE briefing during their 8 class sessions prior to arriving at Maxwell Air Force Base. Various guest presenters (including NDIC faculty, Defense Intelligence Operations Coordination Center and AFWI personnel) helped to prepare the class.  Presentation topics included general guidance on NDIC participation in AWC exercise, intelligence support in this environment, Joint Operations Planning Process (JOPP), introduction to the AWC exercise and the supporting products and systems, the exercise scenario, and the JIPOE process.  On arrival on station at AFWI, the NDIC students received orientation briefings and systems training with other controllers in preparation for the start of the exercise.  The AWC faculty and staff, the AFWI cadre, and the NDIC students considered the experience and impact extremely positive and expressed the relationship and NDIC preparation course should be retained and further developed for annual reoccurrence.  Air University desires to see and would gladly incorporate up to 18-24 NDIC students for this AWC exercise in the future.

Naval War College: Nineteen NDIC students participated in the Naval War College’s (NWC) Joint Military Operations CAPSTONE Exercise from 17 to 28 May as part of their Strategic Crisis Exercise elective (MSI 629).  Working alongside NWC students as part of a Combined Task Force (CTF) staff, the exercise scenario challenged the CTF in crisis action planning in support of a State Department led multinational effort to provide humanitarian assistance to the DPRK.  This planning exercise provided the students with firsthand experience in understanding the complexity of planning military operations to include joint, interagency, and multinational coordination in the achievement of national objectives at the theater level.  The planning process commenced with a PACOM Warning Order and required the students to conduct mission analysis, develop courses of actions, and to analyze and compare selected courses of action through a wargaming process. 

The NDIC students played several different intelligence support roles throughout the CTF staff and prepared for their participation during the college’s spring quarter.  Preparation included lectures and discussions on Adaptive Planning, Dynamic Threat Assessment, Joint Intelligence Preparation of the Operational Environment (JIPOE), the Joint Operational Planning Process, humanitarian relief operations, and the Joint Interagency Coordination Group.  Additionally, NDIC students teamed up to produce six intelligence products that directly supported the development of the JIPOE and much of the intelligence analysis for the planning process.  DIA’s North Korea Branch and the DIOCC Office of Plans provided outstanding support as well in our students’ preparation. 

This is the 8th consecutive year that NDIC has participated in this CAPSTONE Exercise.  Mr. Scott Kist from the Office of Naval Intelligence and a current student in the Masters Program, summed up his experience as, “Participation in the MSI-629 and the command staff exercise at the Naval War College (NWC) provided me insight into the joint military planning process.  As a result, I have a better understanding of joint military planning and the intelligence role in supporting this process.” 

Army War College:  During the winter term, NDIC students explored the application of intelligence to operational and strategic crisis planning.  After eight weeks of rigorous preparation, the course culminated in student participation in the six day U.S. Army War College Strategic Decision Making Exercise (USAWC SDME) at Carlisle, Barracks, Pennsylvania from 3 to 10 March, 2010.  This exercise provides a complicated and demanding laboratory for students to put to practical use the theories and concepts learned at the NDIC.

To prepare for the exercise, NDIC students, are required to conduct in-depth studies of the National Security Strategy, National Military Strategy, all applicable Joint publications, and understand intelligence support to crisis action planning from Phase I (Situation Development) through Phase VI (Execution).  Students must also become familiar with the ever changing “Interagency Process” and those forces that drive senior civilian decision making in a national level crisis environment.

The USAWC SDME exercise allows the NDIC students to then experience the operations and intelligence relationship in a dynamic setting while interacting with the future leaders of Government, the Armed Forces, and the Intelligence Community.  The NDIC students participate in an interactive set of multi-level, political-military situations, applying the diplomatic, information, military, and economic elements of national power to the full range of possibilities.  These include:  contingencies, humanitarian and peacekeeping operations, coalition and Joint Task Force building, and war.  NDIC students were also able to observe and contribute to press briefings, congressional hearings, VIP briefings/visits, negotiations, and Policy Coordination Committee meetings.  The NDIC students were assigned to cells replicating our decision making architecture to include:  the National Security Council, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, European Command, Southern Command, Pacific Command, Central Command, and Northern Command.  The NDIC students were designated as the senior or deputy intelligence person in the cell and acted as equal partners within the cell framework.  NDIC student contributions to each of these cells included a morning intelligence briefing delivered to the cell’s senior personnel and continuous intelligence support to operations.  Additionally, NDIC students were instrumental in helping the War College students understand second and third order effects of their decision making within the context of the exercise and the real world.  Every cell operated in its own unique capacity, but all the War College student’s appreciated the contributions made by the NDIC students as they were challenged with time constrained decision making and evaluated various options in a rapidly evolving situation.  War College students listened to the input and feedback from the NDIC students and frequently would not make decisions until they received this information and assessments.

PACOM:  During 12-16 April and 15-27 May 2010, seven NDIC students and one faculty member participated in U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM) Command Post Exercise (CPX) TERMINAL FURY 2010 (TF10) Parts 1 and 2 held at USPACOM’s Pacific Warfighting Center on Ford Island , Hawaii. Exercise Terminal Fury is the highest priority and largest annual USPACOM exercise for a Major Theater War operational plan. NDIC personnel augmented the USPACOM’s Joint Exercise Control Group (JECG) Intelligence and Opposing Force (Opfor) cells to provide subject matter analysis and expertise, recommendations, and dynamic scripting input for exercise scenario events to meet USPACOM HQ staff and component training objectives.

All participants provide meaningful expertise and assistance to their USPACOM counterparts, thus contributing to the success of this major COCOM exercise. All participants gained knowledge about various adversary offensive and defensive capabilities thus furthering their thesis research on various topics, as well as the latest insights into USPACOM’s joint campaign planning, strategy, operations, and intelligence requirements. The students’ participation was under the auspices of NDIC’s MSI 629 Strategic Crisis Exercise—USPACOM strategy elective course which applies intelligence support to simulated Joint intelligence and operational planning, strategy, tactics, and warfighting execution.

As part of the Master’s in Strategic Intelligence program, all of these exercises continue on annual bases within the MSI 629 Strategic Crisis Exercise course curriculum.