All Source Analyst Training

[RedTEamGuru]

All Source Analysts Training

After a recent DGS DART working group my office was having a discussion on all source analysts training. There seems to be some misconception at least in the DGS community as to what training should be required for those Analysts who are working in an All Source capacity. I think part of this stems from the fact that the AF does not have an All Source Analyst AFSC. Each AFSC traditionally has been INT focused with the exception on the 1N0s, who are Ops focused assigned generally to flying squadrons and the 14N Intelligence Officer.

The line of thinking at the working group tended to steer towards mission specific training and application training rather than core skills that could be used at any unit.

I wanted to get everyone’s thoughts on some of the basic skills training that any all source analysts should have in the toolkit.

The idea we have come up with is a three track approach for all source training, regional training and mission specific training.

The All Source track would be a pyramid with courses built on a foundation of basic skills.

Foundation Skills
• Analytical Methods
– Problem definition
– Process (scientific method)
– Statistics
• Research
– Strategies
– Source evaluation
• Communications
– Technical and Editorial Writing
– Briefing
101 Training
• AFSC/MOS Technical School
– 1NX
• By-fire hose training
– 1N1: Receives SIGINT, HUMINT, AGI, OSINT
– Intel: Receives Ops familiarization;
– AF: Rcvs Army-centric, Navy-centric, Joint
• Military Capabilities
• General Intelligence (CIA, NSA, NGA, etc)

Advanced Skills
• Scenario-based training/exercises
• Specialized analytical techniques
– HUMINT-specific support
– MASINT-specific support
• Region-centric integration
– Able to correlate language, geo-political, and cultural aspects to specific intelligence problems