Intelligence Preparation of the Battlespace (IPB)

[Music] thank you [Music] intelligence preparation of the battle space or ipb is a basic intelligence process to analyze threats in a specific geographic area sounds pretty simple doesn't it well in some ways it is in some ways it's a lot more complex than you think so what is ipb and why is it worth even talking about well to answer that let's go through the process and see what it's all about step one is to define the operational environment this very first step is actually two different steps you must determine how large the battle space is and determine how much time you have to work with as we all know work expands to fill the time allotted so if you've got a big area and not a lot of time your product is not going to be that in depth in this first step we also must consider commander's intent we have to know what our boss wants in a civilian capacity we must consider the needs of those who we are trying to assist who must recognize that the people that we are working for or who we are trying to help out will rarely be fully aware of the considerations out side of their area of expertise everyone is different and every unit has a different mission for instance the commander of e of the considerations out side of their area of expertise everyone is different and every unit has a different mission for instance the commander of an artillery unit might be mostly concerned about ground threats such as counter battery elements but a Fighter Wing Commander might be more concerned about air defense threats likewise a civilian audience might mostly be concerned about law enforcement activity or domestic military operations in their local area it's the job of the analysts to consider factors that a commander might not be specifically thinking about for the S2 shop the operational environment is usually much larger than the actual combat zone in order to consider factors outside the immediate area that might impact actions on the ground in other words if something is outside of your AO outside of your area of operations and therefore not your problem that doesn't mean that it can't come into your area of operations and suddenly become your problem moving on to step two we can describe Battlefield effects at this stage we can determine how the environment can shape operations a significant portion of this step lies with conducting terrain analysis and determining ad we can determine how the environment can shape operations a significant portion of this step lies with conducting terrain analysis and determining adversary composition and disposition on the battlefield in short we need to find out what the terrain is like and where the enemy is located on that Terrain in this step you're going to spend an awful lot of time hunched over a map we also need to determine how we can use the terrain to our advantage and any obstacles that might hinder our operation which we can annotate on a modified combined obstacle overlay or maku weather is very important to consider in this step as well and its effect on the battle space which can be quite significant understanding local civilian culture and organization is also crucial particularly in an asymmetric Warfare context identifying Mobility corridors key terrain and other important terrain features will also be important for the next step which is step 3 evaluate the threat once terrain analysis is complete and we have done our best to locate and annotate enemy forces on our map we can begin to war game Enemy actions in this step we must take care to have an open mind it is easy to get carried away an e enemy forces on our map we can begin to war game Enemy actions in this step we must take care to have an open mind it is easy to get carried away and jump right to step 4 without fully exploring what threats we Face assessing an enemy's order of battle or the list of vehicles and equipment that they have is crucial to understanding what an enemy can and will do for instance if we only find enemy air defense assets if there's just a couple of teams with man pads and maybe a dedicated air defense element or a Sam site we know that there's probably not going to be a significant infantry push in this area however if we see dozens and dozens or hundreds of Tanks staging in an open field well we know something else is going on finally we can move to step 4 determining threat courses of action remember in step 3 we first determined what courses of action the enemy is physically capable of from there we can determine what the enemy is most likely to do first we find out what an enemy can do now we assess what they will do understanding the enemy's desired end state is helpful for determining what they will do but at the Tactical level strategic plans are often not perceivable if our AO i enemy's desired end state is helpful for determining what they will do but at the Tactical level strategic plans are often not perceivable if our AO is really small and we can only see a couple of platoons moving around it's going to be very hard to find out what the rest of the Army's main objectives are but from this step we can narrow down the courses of action we have created to determine what's most likely but always keeping the worst case most dangerous scenario in mind at this stage it is important to be realistic with your KOA development particularly the most deadly KOA the most deadly most dangerous KOA is often not taken seriously by analysts and commanders alike due to lacking realism most deadly KOA should not be a blanket statement but rather specific to the forces on the ground for instance if your most dangerous situation is the use of tactical nuclear weapons this would be a redundant observation if your answer is always well worst case scenario they nuke us this isn't really helpful your most dangerous KOA should be something like this unit over here has an extra man pad that we didn't know about and they shoot us down upon infiltrating the area this allows even t something like this unit over here has an extra man pad that we didn't know about and they shoot us down upon infiltrating the area this allows even the most dangerous KOA to be be mitigated responsibly rather than being a hopeless event that can't really be planned for once we figure out what the enemy is most likely to do we're pretty much done well not really ipb is a continual process and is constantly changing you really won't ever be able to say that the ipb for an area is done because it's never really complete as the battle wages on ipb changes by the second usually so quickly that you won't even have time to update your PowerPoint slides if all of this sounds a little bit too military eccentric don't worry ipb is a process that can be of much benefit to the prepared citizen who is concerned with conducting operations in their local area in military circles ipb is very much a small piece of a much larger puzzle a small part of the planning and decision-making process however from a civilian perspective we will likely not have rigid command and planning considerations to speak of civilians might be more concerned with in-depth terrain analysis rather than the grand strategy rigid command and planning considerations to speak of civilians might be more concerned with in-depth terrain analysis rather than the grand strategy it is important to military commanders the average prepared citizen might not even have any organization at all Beyond a platoon-sized element citizens will also not have nearly the resources of a military organization but they will also not have the bloat and administrative red tape either ipb is a great tool for understanding your local area and applying other Concepts within the field of intelligence as such ipb for the prepared citizen is much more of a guide of what to put on the map rather than an overarching process that feeds into mdmp for the civilian ipb conflicts as needed and serve as the minimum Baseline of intelligence activity for prepared citizens for the prepared citizen we might not have time to sit down in a nice well-lit warm office building and actually conduct ipb we might have 30 minutes in a blank sheet of paper so in that case here is a very rough quick and dirty way of conducting ipb the first step is to get a map which might be quite challenging printers are not normally found in a combat zone so you might h way of conducting ipb the first step is to get a map which might be quite challenging printers are not normally found in a combat zone so you might have to make do with the best you have plus a lot of times at least in military circles maps are more of a status symbol the bigger map a person has the more important they are so do what you've got to do to get a map if you want to make one yourself beforehand that would be preferred because then you can scale it to the right size that you need it to be in this first step we're actually taking care of a couple of different steps we are defining the operational environment by choosing a map right off the bat that is the right size for the area that we're talking about once we have our map we can move to step two and step two is pretty simple simply put everything on the map all the stuff listed on your screen right now this is obviously a place to start so if you have more time you can Flex as needed but really you need to focus on Mobility terrain weather and the enemy start with your basic roads your primary roads that can be used to move in and out of an area those are also really good if you have to sketch the map it's easier to st sic roads your primary roads that can be used to move in and out of an area those are also really good if you have to sketch the map it's easier to start by sketching the roads next start adding in a little bit of terrain some of the higher areas if you're in a mountainous area this is is going to be a little bit easier because you can see where the mountains are at and it's a little bit easier to get landmarks in a mountainous region because it's a little easier to to read homemade topographic maps that you sketch out on the ground with your finger as opposed to an area which is completely flat where you might not be able to see anything but trees and man-made landmarks next start factoring in the weather if you have a Kestrel or some other kind of weather meter turn it on so that it can start getting readings you're going to need to start establishing a baseline of weather patterns as early as possible so that you have as much data to work with if you're conducting Aviation operations things like visibility winds precipitation and density altitude are going to be very important for your Pilots to know likewise if you're working near the coastline you're going to need to have thin ensity altitude are going to be very important for your Pilots to know likewise if you're working near the coastline you're going to need to have things like tide charts or start observing the tides if you don't have a tide chart to work off of you're also going to need to know things like c-state and wind speeds now that we've gotten our Mobility corridors taken care of we've started to think about our key terrain and start annotating obstacles and things like that and we started to get a good Baseline for what the local weather is now we can start putting down the enemy basically put down every enemy location that you know of if you know where the enemy are at put it on the map if you don't know where they're at put where you think they are and for your assessment of where you think the enemy might be well that's why you conducted the analysis of the mobility corridors and terrain and weather all three of those factors will help you understand where an adversary might be once you have done all of this step back look at your map and start thinking about what the enemy is going to do based on all of the information that you know so far start by figuring out what your enemy can do a start thinking about what the enemy is going to do based on all of the information that you know so far start by figuring out what your enemy can do and then start thinking about what they will do narrow that down to a few courses of action always keeping in mind what is the absolute worst case scenario because you have to plan for that just in case and you've just conducted your basic ipb foreign area very quickly very efficiently with minimal or even zero resources conducting ipb like this might not be as doctrinally sound as we'd like it to be but it's realistic and it's is what works in field conditions this is why we have to consider the fog of War Factor we can read 213 page Warfare Publications and we can sleep with a smart book tucked under our pillow but at the end of the day Warfare changes everything and you are never going to be able to complete all of the taskings given to you you will simply have to do the best you can in the time that you have it's going to feel awful especially if you have very little experience outside of War games and NTC rotations this is doubly so for the average citizen who might not have any military experience to lean back on practicing and t e of War games and NTC rotations this is doubly so for the average citizen who might not have any military experience to lean back on practicing and training on this stuff really does help so does creating your own little cheat sheets and organizational shortcuts to make life easier if you understand how to make maps that's a really good first step to get you started but we must remember that while the field of intelligence is quite rigidly outlined in Doctrine when you're stuck in the thick of it it's more about shooting from the hip than anything else you are going to have to go with your gut more than you'd like and more than the training manuals admit that's why ipb is so important by having some structure a pre-existing plan you can at least have a lot of background knowledge that will help you make educated guesses in the intelligence field we unfortunately have to make a lot of guesses but we never make uneducated guesses your slides will become outdated and you will probably embarrass yourself by a briefing stale intelligence to people who know it's stale you are going to forget to put something on the map or you're going to forget about some technical capability that the e to people who know it's stale you are going to forget to put something on the map or you're going to forget about some technical capability that the enemy has this is why we practice and ipb is a good starting point for everyone regardless of field experience and as you get better at it you realize how Warfare Publications are usually written on mahogany conference tables and calm Office Buildings for people in calm Office Buildings with mahogany conference tables but even considering these woes all Doctrine has to start somewhere and every military strategist tries to make a name for themselves even in peacetime where Doctrine can't really be tested so everything is a balance we must take everything with a grain of salt but we also must respect the fact that Doctrine usually costs many lives to develop so try to resist the urge to armchair quarterback everything but also leave a lot of room for flexibility and the fog of War like everything else in the Tactical world you are going to suck at this to start with everyone does the biggest problem is not knowing what you don't know and since nobody would rather make maps than go to the range these topics usually get neglected being di st problem is not knowing what you don't know and since nobody would rather make maps than go to the range these topics usually get neglected being difficult and boring is usually the final nail in the coffin for a community's intelligence preparedness but it can be done and you can work in these Concepts during more fun activities as you are playing around on ATAC in the woods try plotting the features that you can see if you see a good spot for an observation post mark it on the map same with choke points good places for radio antennas or snipers or a bunker then start thinking about how you or an adversary might use these resources or positions and how that might change if someone starts shooting before you know it you'll be conducting ipb without even realizing it once you get a few practice ipb sessions under your belt you'll be good to go and more prepared to fight in the shade [Music] [Music] foreign