Think of developing an R&S plan as being similar to building a house. A good house needs a solid foundation. The pillars for the foundation of R&S are the actual terms used. Before going on, let us discuss some important terms.
Refer to the glossary for the definitions of reconnaissance, surveillance, and CR. Below is a discussion of these terms.
Reconnaissance
Reconnaissance is concerned with three components: enemy, weather, and terrain. You should understand that reconnaissance is active; it seeks out enemy positions, obstacles, and routes. Since movement draws attention, good reconnaissance uses stealth to avoid detection.
Surveillance
Surveillance is passive. Surveillance implies observing a specified area or areas systematically from a fixed, concealed position. A good R&S plan contains the best mix of R&S based on requirements, assets available, and the threat.
Counterreconnaissance
Essentially, CR means blinding the enemy’s eyes so they cannot detect our attack, or cannot locate our defensive positions. CR missions require you to:
Providing support to the CR mission means that you must become an expert on threat reconnaissance doctrine, tactics, unit organizations, and equipment. You must know how the enemy plans to collect information, when they do it, and with what equipment, vehicles, and organizations they collect.
Then plan how to find the enemy’s reconnaissance assets before they are able to find friendly forces. You also need to understand U.S. maneuver organizations, doctrine, tactics, and capabilities, since you may be called on to provide a recommendation for organizing CR forces.
Coordinate closely with the S3 and the FSO, since much of their planning relies on your ability to predict, locate, and confirm enemy reconnaissance assets. Your knowledge of threat reconnaissance capabilities, limitations, and vulnerabilities aids the staff in developing high payoff targets (HPTs). It aids in determining how best to destroy or suppress those targets, either by lethal or nonlethal means.
At brigade level, you must get the IEWSE officer involved in CR battle planning, because using EW may be crucial to the success of the mission.
Defining R&S and CR in isolation may suggest they occur in a vacuum. Nothing could be further from the truth. R&S is a crucial phase of the intelligence cycle. As you will see, your R&S effort requires direction if it is to provide the necessary intelligence the commander needs to fight and win the battle.
You might have the impression R&S has definitive start and end points. Actually, R&S is part of a larger, continuing collection process. That process gets its direction from two things: first, the mission, and second, by extension, the IPB process.
These two things tell you:
Your collection plan enables you to direct and control the collection of information. That information, once recorded, evaluated, and interpreted, becomes intelligence. Collecting information gives commanders targeting data so they can destroy enemy weapon systems and units. Your analysis can provide insight into the enemy situation to the extent that you can make an educated estimate of possible future enemy courses of action (COAs). At this point, inform your commander and the rest of the staff, then begin to develop friendly COAs for future operations.
The cycle continues endlessly. However, within the cycle you may discover, based on the picture you have developed, that you must modify the collection plan. Or, based on what you have collected, you must update the IPB terrain database.
There is an interrelationship between all aspects of the intelligence cycle. Your collection plan has a direct effect on how you:
The R&S plan marries the IPB with assets available for information collection. It organizes and prioritizes information requirements. This results in R&S taskings to units through the S3.