Order of battle intelligence

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Order of battle intelligence is a subset of intelligence analysis, which produces information on the organization, strength and deployment of opposing forces, usually military. Its basic principles are common to all forms of military forces, conventional and guerrilla, but the methods of collection and analysis differ for different target organizations.

Order of battle intelligence serves strategic and tactical functions. At the strategic level, it is the basic means of understanding the enemy's immediate capability. For a grand strategic view, economic intelligence, Scientific and technical intelligence, etc., must also be considered.

Strong order of battle intelligence, including biographical intelligence down to the individual level, is a vital tool in prisoner interrogation. Order of battle and biographic information often makes We Know All and File and Dossier interrogation techniques feasible. It may play a role in creating false documents for interrogation (e.g., Establish Your Identity interrogation techniques), or creating false identities for one's own personnel.

At the highest level, public records, even for fairly secret opponents, begin the process: the names and identities of major commands are often well known. Against a modern opponent, signals intelligence, especially traffic analysis, can reveal the literal and figurative "wiring" of the organization chart: who talks to whom?

Order of battle is present even with clandestine organizations. Financial intelligence, for example, along with signals intelligence, revealed links between al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya.