Quote Originally Posted by dguidry1 View Post
My belief is that we will never see such an all-encompassing automation tool...and we shouldn't. As a society we've become enslaved by the desire and need for technology. Sometimes we just have to sit back and apply good ol' human knowledge, common sense, and "GUT FEELINGS" to situations.
Totally agree. I find it funny that we allow the guys in the 2 shop to make assumptions and develop an analysis based on their understanding of the past and the present IOT come up with a likely future. We also to some extent let the 5 and 3 guys do the same when they develop and implement a plan. Yet for some reason when it comes to IO everyone wants the technological solution that will guarantee the correct COA. A good IO staff should be so buried in their current operational environment that they are the SME for the space and their gut check should carry exactly the same weight as those developed by the 2 (having said that ... finding a 2 now days that will commit to what is likely to happen rather than just report what has happened is a rare breed as well ... one could argue that has also been caused by technology).

I always find ION an interesting case study in how automated planning tools suddenly limit your options. ION and its little drop-down menus supposedly offered the Pandora’s Box of IO planning yet when you really got into it PowerPoint, a template a couple of good IO planners offered more. ION allowed me to (through its automated drop-downs) plan the delivery of lethal and non-lethal effects right down to the impact of a 500-pounder at a specific point. What I no ability to do though was factor in things like the presence, posture and profile of my own troops i.e. if we go in tooled up, behind armour and refusing to engage with the locals we will create an effect. Conversely if we take off our helmets and glasses, talk to the locals and act open and engaging we will have another effect. The boffins that developed ION (my apologies if there are any here) wanted the whole process tangible and technical ... EW burn here will create this effect for this period of time etc. Some of that is great but for the most part our ION terminals are gathering dust. I'm not sure the newest version is going to be any better.