We received the following article written by LTC Kevin Spielman.
“Over the past decade of conflict, the US Army has learned a lot about the importance of inform and influence activities (IIA). As the Army expands its training focus beyond Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom/New Dawn and utilizes the decisive action training environment (DATE) to train for future conflicts, leaders must ensure that effective tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) learned in the past are retained and are incorporated within the DATE. Brigade combat teams (BCT) operating in the DATE must be able to analyze the information environment, integrate IIA into staff activities, and proactively use IIA to generate effects in the operational environment (OE) in support of the commander’s intent. This article addresses these factors, and provides TTPs that can be used to facilitate successful IIA.” Read more
One Comment on "Article: “Conducting IIA in the Decisive Action Training Environment”"
I would like to propose a way to bridge the steps stated in the article “Analysis of the Information Environment and Translating Staff Work into IIA”. The PMESII-PT construct provides operational level understanding of the environment. In order to apply relevant information significant to achieving the end state, the BCT S7 should also examine the mission variables consisting of mission, enemy, terrain and weather, troops and support available, time available and civil considerations (METT-TC). One example is how does our mission affect the political status quo? Are we a real or perceived threat to the authority? The METT-TC process synthesizes the operational variables and tactical-level information with local knowledge about conditions relevant to their mission and assists in focusing available assets and activities to achieve the desired effects. Conducting this analysis should generate many of the possible inputs required in figure 4.