To successfully plan and execute the R&S effort, you should understand the five phases of the collection management process, and the relationship of R&S to collection management. Regardless of the echelon, you will go through the following five steps or phases to develop a collection plan and, ultimately, an R&S plan:
Receive and Analyze Requirements
Receiving and analyzing requirements means identifying what the commander must know about the enemy, weather, and terrain to accomplish the mission. Normally, the commander’s concerns are expressed as questions, termed priority intelligence requirements (PIR) or information requirements (IR).
PIR and IR are either stated by the commander or recommended by you and approved by the commander. They are the very reason R&S plans (and all collection plans) exist. You may also have requirements from higher or subordinate units; these you will prioritize and consolidate with the commander’s PIR. Once you have identified all requirements, you will eventually convert them into specific items to look for.
Determine Resource Availability and Capability
In simplest terms, determining resource availability and capability means assessing what means you have to look for the specific items you have developed in the first step.
Task Resources
When tasking resources, you must tell a specific resource what it should look for, and how it is to report information.
At division and higher, several elements accomplish these five steps. For example, the all-source production section (ASPS) aids the collection management and dissemination (CM&D) section in analyzing requirements. The CM&D may simply task the military intelligence (MI) battalion to collect on specific requirements; the MI battalion S3 is the one who actually tasks a specific asset. In fact, very seldom does a division G2 directly task a specific asset.
At maneuver brigade and battalion levels, however, your S2 section will usually do all five steps of the collection management process. You will develop a collection plan which addresses how your unit will collect information to satisfy all intelligence requirements. Unlike division, you will normally task specific assets to collect specific information.
This essentially is the difference between a collection plan and an R&S plan: A collection plan identifies which units or agencies will collect information. An R&S plan identifies which specific assets will be tasked to collect information, and how they will do it. Therefore, as a general rule, R&S planning occurs mostly at brigade and below.
Evaluate Reporting
Is the asset accurately reporting what it sees based on its capabilities? And does the report answer the original question?
Update Collection Planning
Do you need more information to answer the question, or is it time to shift focus and begin answering another question?