Protection of Civilians Military Reference Guide, Second Edition Second Edition | Page 56

Protection of Civilians Military Reference Guide
How the Task is Accomplished
a. Intelligence activities must be effectively managed to identify the desired information,
allocate collection assets, analyze information, and use it to enhance operations. Analysis
processes raw information into intelligence that is disseminated to support situational
understanding and effective operations. The military force obtains much of its information and
intelligence from other military organizations as well as from its own assets and units. Some
activities and assets are specifically intended to collect information. In other cases intelligence is
a side-benefit to activities that are primarily conducted for other purposes.
b. It is important to identify and prioritize the desired information. Intelligence frameworks
include commander’s critical information requirements (CCIR) and a more complex set of
supporting information requirements that comprehensively array the operational environment, the
actors, and intelligence collection.
C OMMANDER ’ S C RITICAL I NFORMATION R EQUIREMENTS
a. Commanders typically develop a manageable set of CCIR,to sort efficiently through the vast
amount of available information and prioritize collection and analysis efforts. CCIR includes
priority intelligence requirements (PIR) and friendly force information requirements (FFIR). 35
Particularly in a PoC context, FFIR may be expanded to include information on civilians, partners,
locally-contracted personnel, and other actors. PoC considerations should be incorporated within
CCIR. If they are omitted, unit activities will likely be less effective in protecting civilians.
b. CCIR focus information collection and analysis efforts, which will always be limited, and
supports:
• Early and comprehensive situational understanding of the operational environment,
actors, dynamics, and civilian vulnerabilities and threats.
• Commanders’ decision-making.
• Unit reporting.
• Planning and execution.
c. As a general rule, between eight and twelve CCIR elements should provide an appropriate
set for a commander and his/her organization to maintain sufficient focus and support mission
accomplishment. The CCIR may then be broken down further to identify specific information
requirements and collection responsibilities. The unit should obtain information to support CCIR
in a variety of ways, including the management of intelligence assets, unit reporting, engagements
with the population and other actors, and from other sources such as the media. While the CCIR
should be frequently updated to maintain relevance, a representative set of CCIR related to the
Protection of Civilians is shown in Figure 2.6.
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Most FFIR are not obtained through intelligence channels, but are provided through means such as unit status
reports. However, FFIR are addressed here for convenience. Some militaries add essential elements of friendly
information (EEFI) as a CCIR category. EEFI refers to information about the force that must be kept from adversaries
and is related to Operations Security (OPSEC).
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