Information Operations

[wm]

I agree with your proposal to influence operations (INFLUOPS), not to be confused with influenza (but there are several parallels).

Information Operations (IO) on the other hand should focus on information technology, EW, CNA, defending or electronic databases, etc. For example, jamming radio signals, jamming radar, attacking enemy C4I systems (remotely with hacker attacks and directly with bombs), and defending against the same. The information technology networked battlefield was the origin of IO (if I recall it correctly). IO is heavily slanted towards information technology and INFLUOPs is heavily slanted towards PSYOP, though a number of supporting activities are not PSYOP, and IO can support INFLUOPs.

If IO is influence operations, then what is the difference between a PSYOP'er and an IO officer? If IO is holistic PSYOP, what is EW and CNA?

Riddle me that Batman and you'll set me free from my anguish.

If you tell me it depends, you'll leave me with a severe headache.

I agree completely with this distinction between IO in Influops. I suspect that the confusion arises because of the inclusion of Psyops under the IO umbrella.

Psyops may be used as a tool to degrade an oppponent's information exchange capabilities, in which case one may wish to say that it falls under IO. However, I think Pysops' primary goal is to influence one's opponent's (and the non-aligned fence sitters') mindset using non-kinetic means. Consider this comparison. H&I artillery fires may well degrade enemy morale and cause an opponent to be more likely to surrender. Does this justify one in calling H&I a Pysops tool? I do not think so. Similarly, a Psyops message may well cause a C2/information breakdown (particularly if it is a black or gray message). However, that kind of effort would be more along the lines of what I was taught was manipulative deception, a component if EW, not Pysops.

What worries me is that folks may look at a Pysops asset like Commando Solo as a high powered jammer, hence an EW asset, rather than as a mobile media broadcast system. But, by using that sort of thinking, a Bradley or M113 is also just a fancy tracked cargo delivery vehicle.