EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The
Doklam area of operations can be subjected to a military intelligence
battle plan wherein the primary objective of enhancing the situational
awareness of the commander at the concerned echelon is attained.
A proper mix of intelligence collection assets is divined to obtain the
necessary information in keeping with intelligence gaps and prioritized
intelligence requirements as laid down by the commanders at Bde and Div
levels. I would like to point out at this juncture that intelligence
gaps are much more evident to company/battalion commanders than to
higher headquarters. True intelligence is disseminated to lower
tactical levels, intelligence that is collected from human assets, from
overhead surveillance platforms and from reconnaissance and
surveillance platoons but it is only the soldier on the ground who is
the closest to the local populace, the terrain and sometimes the enemy
that makes him aware of the need to answer certain immediate
questions--answers to intelligence gaps and these gaps are not evident
to higher headquarters. Say for example there is a possibility of
extracting information from a local who has suspected connection with
the enemy sympathizers , and here it is the line infantryman who doubts
this as he is in the best position to be in close proximity to the
local populace but the soldier has no previous training in immediate
tactical extraction of intelligence , which i term tactical questioning
and this coupled with basic surveillance-reconnaissance-document and
captured equipment exploitation can be very easily taught to the
infantryman thus rendering him as a secondary collector for HIS
battalion int officer, an indispensable organic int asset who can
contribute in his own little way to the battalion commanders immediate
intelligence needs or answers to intelligence gaps. Ill clarify the
term intelligence gaps more here : Aptly it is the gap between received
intelligence from higher headquarters and the intelligence requirements
in toto of the battalion commander. It is the existence of such
unanswered intelligence gaps that contribute to most
operational/tactical failures.
All this being said , Doklam area of
operations is amenable to tactical intelligence collection by organic
intelligence platoons of the deployed infantry units. A very positive
feature of tactical intelligence capability is the number of
intelligence assets available in the length and breadth of the area of
operations. With organic intelligence platoons in every battalion this
is made possible. But this is important, very important secondary
collection operations. Still intelligence collection at higher
headquarters level must be more streamlined. The architecture must he
altered to rein in intelligence assets from different perspectives of
task organization. Plus a seamless communication protocol is required
where information flow from soldier on the ground to the Bde int server
or the other main cloud server and vice versa , adjacent headquarters
intelligence exchange , flow between commands --tactical , operational
rear headquarters (be it operational or even line tactical units and
headquarters like deep entry tactical humint reconnaissance teams and
corresponding forward and rear temporary headquarters
setups).Communication is crucial as it ensures proper command and
control of intelligence assets and more importantly conveying to them
(or actuating sensors) changing intelligence requirements due to battle
tempo or passive changes in enemy intentions. I have created tactical
operations centers TOC's with all this in mind , staffed not by
intelligence military occupational specialty personnel but by line
infantrymen of the rank of Sr NCOs , JCOs and a battle Captain.
Networked all these Bn TOCs with the Bde Int Server , the Cloud server
(where apart from storage and retrieval of information and push-pull
with the combat soldier on the ground , it has a microprocessor based
system with software to reposition and actuate sensors in accordance
with incoming changes in intelligence or any other change as perceived
by tactical units , intelligence personnel or other assets).