Close ISR support re-organizing the Combined Forces Air Component Commander's Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance processes and agencies

Abstract

Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance support to counterinsurgency operations is significantly different from the support necessary for conventional, major theater warfare based upon the command levels of planning and execution, the developing nature of "wicked" problems within a counterinsurgency, and the competing needs for highly limited resources. The U.S. Air Force, however, maintains an organizational structure optimized for conventional warfare at the expense of the responsiveness and flexibility necessary to conduct ISR operations in coordination with supported maneuver elements. This thesis identifies the problems encountered by the ISR community in supporting counterinsurgency operations and makes several recommendations for mitigating those problems, among them the development of a dynamic organizational design, a request and tasking process that manages both ISR and operations assets with a focus on the disparate needs of responsible commanders, and the transition to a doctrine focused on real-time ISR integration with, rather than preliminary support to, operations. The doctrine proposed by this thesis is exportable to non-military operations to include disaster recovery and humanitarian relief operations.