Military intelligence
Military intelligence is information about adversaries, terrain, and operational environments collected and analyzed to support military decisions.
Intelligence cycle: A recurring process that directs intelligence needs, gathers information, analyzes it, and delivers results to decision-makers. It describes the workflow through which military intelligence is produced and used.
Military reconnaissance: The gathering of information about enemy forces, terrain, or routes through observation and patrols. Reconnaissance supplies timely local information for operations.
Military attaché: A military officer assigned to an embassy to represent armed forces and report on a host country. Attachés became a formal peacetime channel for observing foreign militaries.
Counterintelligence: Activities that detect, prevent, and disrupt espionage, sabotage, and other intelligence threats. It protects military organizations from adversary intelligence operations.
Intelligence requirements: Questions and information needs that guide intelligence collection and analysis. Commanders' requirements focus collection on decisions that need support.
Targeting: The process of selecting and prioritizing targets and matching them with appropriate actions. Intelligence helps identify targets, assess their significance, and judge effects.
Cryptanalysis: The study of recovering information from encrypted or coded messages without the key. Breaking wartime codes transformed intelligence about adversary plans.
Military deception: Actions intended to mislead an adversary about friendly capabilities, intentions, or operations. Deception manipulates an adversary's understanding, unlike intelligence's effort to assess it.
Signals intelligence: Intelligence derived from intercepted communications and other electronic signals. It is one collection discipline used to learn about adversaries.
Battle damage assessment: The evaluation of damage and effects caused by military operations against a target. Intelligence assesses whether an operation achieved its intended effects.