Priority Intelligence Requirements

Priority

noun

1. Precedence, especially established by order of importance or urgency.
2. An established right to precedence.
3. An authoritative rating that establishes such precedence.

Intelligence

noun

1. The ability to acquire, understand, and use knowledge.
2. Information, especially secret information gathered about an actual or potential enemy or adversary.
3. The gathering of such information.

Requirement

noun

1. Something that is required; a necessity.
2. Something obligatory; a prerequisite.

Priority Intelligence Requirements

“PIRs” in the biz. An ever evolving and changing list of ‘unknowns’ called Intelligence Gaps that is made by and assists Unit Commanders in understanding their Battlespace and efficiently utilize Intelligence assets. There is a sort of science behind making the list that involves asking questions, followed by a statement or ‘marching orders’ to answer said question. This helps everyone in the Commander’s cadre think clearly and concisely about when, where, and how many Intelligence troops to deploy on the battlefield. It is also a kind of triage for asset allocation. This can be translated for the American Partisan group. If you can ask questions, read and write, you can create a list of PIRs.

As the definitions of each word in PIR state, it is more than just a question for an unknown answer. It is an Intelligence Gap that is hindering your unit from completing it’s operation. A mission is something akin to a goal. An operation is a specific mobilization to complete a task to help complete that mission. These two are often “incorrectly” used interchangeably but it really isn’t a world ending mistake.

Most Partisans have a similar mission: disrupt enemy operations and gain political influence. But will have completely different operations. A PIR will take specifics about enemy operations that need answers. How/when are OPFOR primarily communicating? Where are their Forward Operating Bases? How many vehicles do they have? How many/what different types of vehicles do enemy forces utilize? What intelligence assets do OPFOR have?  Just a few of limitless questions to ask.

Asking the questions is the hardest part of this process because it is completely based on Mission, Enemy, Terrain & Weather, Troops, Time Available, and Civilian Considerations (METT-TC). Every instructor’s favorite side step to direct questions. But truly, it is. The Mid-Atlantic Madmen will not have the same PIRs as the Dakota Dingleberries. Similar in many aspects, but not the same. Certainly, there will not be the same availability of resources or “assets”.

Speaking of assets,  what assets does your unit have? If you are capped out at a single Low Level Voice Intercept team, you are far from useless. But the reality is that you need a dedicated Intelligence gathering apparatus that is optimized for YOUR mission. One man cannot complete every step including collection on his own, this is a team sport.

Baselines

If you have attended any of the RTO/Advanced RTO or SIGINT classes instructed by NC Scout at Brushbeater, you’ve heard how critical baselines are to intelligence gathering. Not dissimilar to common business models, this your normal or ‘average’ of whatever variable you’re researching. Obviously we’ll use Radio Frequency Signals as our focus. Most of this work is already done for you. Follow the link and get squared away for whatever region you reside. I recommend starting with a county and use what resources you have to confirm the information. Baselines are important because when you are actively monitoring your immediate area you will be able to more rapidly see or discover abnormal signal broadcasts.

Your baseline should be a chart. Microsoft excel or an equivalent program is great tool to use. Learning how to create pivot tables is a real pro move for the Partisan Analyst. Create your columns with the names of bands (HF, VHF, UHF), also separate these columns for analog and digital for a total of 6(for now). We’re crawling here. Walk, Run, and Sprint at your discretion.

This method will show you graphically, which is the most common type of transmissions. As the analyst and creator of the spreadsheet, you can add or subtract whatever categories(columns) as you want or are comfortable with. This will assist you with find your intelligence gaps thus, creating and limiting your PIRs.

Example: You notice that the UHF repeater is very busy with traffic but there is also a lot of Digital signals in the UHF range ~ 440 mHz. All you have is your basic analog radio and precision cut yagi antenna. Maybe it’s time to learn how to use that DMR radio or even the Software Defined Radio(SDR) and decode those digital signals.

Expanding your intelligence collecting capability and skill WILL save your life. This is something that everyone, including myself needs become proficient with.