A Strategies-to-Tasks Framework for Planning and Executing Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) Operations

Carl Rhodes, Jeff Hagen, Mark Westergren

ResearchPublished Apr 8, 2007

To assist in moving intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) planning and execution forward from a fixed target and deliberate planning focus to one centered on emerging targets, the authors propose enhancing the collection management process with a strategies-to-tasks and utility framework. By linking collection targets to operational tasks, objectives, and top-level commander’s guidance with relative utilities, planning for the daily intelligence collections and real-time retasking for ad hoc ISR targets could be enhanced. When current tools are modified to provide this information, planners will be able to link collection targets to top-level objectives for better decisionmaking and optimization of low-density, high-demand collection assets, and intelligence officers will be better able to deal with time-sensitive, emerging targets by rapidly comparing the value of collecting an ad hoc collection with the value of collecting opportunities already planned.

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Rhodes, Carl, Jeff Hagen, and Mark Westergren, A Strategies-to-Tasks Framework for Planning and Executing Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) Operations. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2007. https://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR434.html.
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The research reported here was sponsored by the United States Air Force and conducted by RAND Project AIR FORCE.

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