I spent some time today reading about the recent agreement between the Army and Air Force on utilization of airborne intelligence assets.
Here's a quick look. For more, google "task 11 UAS."
This is one of the few cases I know of where Army assets are pledged to assist the air component's independent operations. Personally, I like this new agreement a lot because it formalizes what should be SOP - that everything, ultimately, belongs to the JFC, and he/she should be able to utilize capabilities when and where they are needed.
That's all quite interesting on its own, but it got me thinking about the defunct
DARO from the 1990's (an attempt to do for airborne ISR what the NRO did for satellite reconnaissance) as well as ISR ops today (which is where I work now). So here's my proposal - extrapolate from this recent Task 11 agreement and make ISR a separate component under the Joint Force Commander led by a "Joint Force ISR Component Commander" or JFISRCC.
It seems like such a structural change would improve the JFC's ability to allocate scarce ISR assets and prevent asset hoarding. Additionally, it might solve what I see is a major problem today - inadequate coordination and intelligence sharing between the land and air component's ISR assets. Too much intelligence is still stovepiped inside those structures, causing all sorts of problems and headaches.
For example, the process a ground unit must go through for ISR support is needlessly difficult and complex - first they have to ask for "organic" support, then component support, and only after those are exhausted can they go to the air component. A JFISRC would be a "one stop shop" for ISR that, theoretically, at least, could significantly improve this process as well as better match the best ISR asset for a particularly requirement.
What do you all think?
Bookmarks