Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Division (ISRD)
Mission
The Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Division (ISRD) provides the Combined Force Air Component Commander (CFACC), Combined Air and Space Operations Center (CAOC) and subordinate units with intelligence, ISR operations and targeting. As one of five divisions, the ISRD enables the CAOC to meet its mission as the primary command and control facility for Coalition air operations in the US Central Command's (USCENTCOM) Area of Responsibility (AOR).
Function
The ISRD provides a common threat and targeting picture key to planning and executing theater-wide aerospace operations to meet CFACC objectives. The ISRD is also the means by which the effects of air and space operations are measured. ISR personnel conduct planning, monitor execution of airborne ISR operations, quickly adjust ISR plans as required and direct the CAOC's ISR processes.
The ISRD conducts ISR operations to update the intelligence preparation of the environment, which provides context for understanding the adversary's intentions and supports the application of predictive battle space awareness (PBA). PBA is a multi-dimensional understanding of the environment in time, space and effect, regardless of the enemy's location, weather or time of day. PBA consists of several key elements: Intelligence Preparation of the Environment, target development, ISR strategy and planning, and ISR employment and assessment. This knowledge of the operational environment, in concert with command and control, enables the CFACC to anticipate future operational conditions, establish priorities, exploit emerging opportunities and act with a degree of speed and certainty not matched by our adversaries.
Organization
The ISRD is composed of members from the Air Forces' five AN/USQ-163 Falconer Air Operations Centers, the Distributed Ground Station community, as well as the major commands and their subordinate units, and Coalition and joint partners. The ISRD has changed dramatically in personnel make-up over time in response to the operational changes in the USCENTCOM AOR. The ISRD is led by the Director of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance and organized into six functionally-oriented teams: Analysis, Correlation and Fusion; ISR Operations; Air Force National-Tactical Integration; Processing, Exploitation and Dissemination Management; Targets; and Unit Support.
Analysis, Correlation and Fusion conducts all-source Intelligence Preparation of the Environment, concentrating primarily on theater air, missile, space and information warfare threats. The ACF team also describes the characteristics of the operational environment, evaluating the adversary, and assessing adversary courses of actions. ACF assists force protection analysis to include those intelligence activities intended to detect and report time-sensitive intelligence information that involves a threat to the U.S. or allied military forces and assets in the area of operations. ACF performs 24-hour analysis of all three areas of operation - Iraq, Afghanistan and HOA - providing daily intelligence summaries for theater and global customers, as well as providing a daily staff update brief to the CFACC and the CAOC staff. ACF focuses on near-term, air-centric issues to inform Airmen decision makers from the CFACC down to the cockpit.
ISR Operations is responsible for the collaborative effort of theater collection managers, reconnaissance and surveillance planners, platform sensor liaisons and the exploitation centers to ensure ISR operations are synchronized with joint operations. Collection management entails converting intelligence requirements into collection requirements, establishing priorities, tasking or coordinating with appropriate collection sources or agencies, monitoring results and retasking, as required.
Air Force National-Tactical Integration (AF NTI) facilitates the National Intelligence Communities' (NIC) collection, reporting, and analysis capabilities directly into the CAOC's planning, threat analysis, targeting and assessment processes in support of joint and Coalition operations. AF NTI provides a framework to standardize national intelligence contributions to the air component, while improving support through critical two-way interaction with the NIC. This teamwork provides an "in-the-fight" national intelligence presence that enhances and enable CFACC operations.
Processing Exploitation and Dissemination (PED) Management is made up of three teams that work to provide exploitation guidance, special products and qualitative assessments. Tasking Exploitation Management (TEM) provides efficient and effective management of critical exploitation resources in order to allow expedient dissemination of imagery products to the requesting customer. Imagery Support Element (ISE) provides basic targeting graphics to the Targets Cell. ISE target materials are the starting point for target nomination or time-sensitive targeting, providing basic details of a prospective target that the Targets Cell further develops. Imagery analysts in ISE provide specialty imagery products to customers in the AOR using National Satellite, U-2, GLOBAL HAWK, PREDATOR, and commercial imagery. These products provide an instantaneous picture for commanders and Coalition forces conducting operations across the AOR. ISR Assessment (ISR-A) "closes the loop" by evaluating the ISRD's planning and execution of ISR operations. ISR-A provides quantative and qualitative assessments for CFACC tasked ISR. By compiling statistics on mission data and operational effects from ISR collections, ISR-A determines mission effectiveness and recommends what procedures or operations should be altered to improve mission success. Interaction with theater ISR users provides vital feedback and also enables ISR-A to conduct customer education, as a mechanism to improve responsiveness to warfighter needs.
Targets provides target system analysis, target development, force application/weaponeering recommendations and Collateral Damage Estimates to the CAOC Director, the Combat Plans and the Combat Operations Division, as well as the forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan. This support is provided for both pre-planed targets and in time sensitive targeting situations. Targets is the only organization in the theater with the capability to provide precise coordinates and conduct formal Collateral Damage Estimates necessary for pre-planned target approval. In all situations, the cell works to achieve the desired effects while minimizing or eliminating collateral damage to the civilian populace and the environment.
Unit Support facilitates information flow to all flying units across the AOR. The Unit Support team provides tailored threat depiction for pre-mission planning, time sensitive targeting, personnel recovery and troops in contact events. Unit support receives and compiles mission reports, in-flight reports, and other significant reports, assesses the reporting, and produces mission summaries and surface-to-air fire reports. Unit Support is the conduit for joint service flying units to submit requests for information required to sustain air operations in the AOR.
March 2008
