U.S. Army aviation is one of the most powerful ways to shape the battlefield, so timely and accurate intelligence support is imperative for mission success. Military intelligence professionals assigned to Army aviation units are expected to understand aviation operations and tailor their analysis accordingly to effectively provide intelligence for a commander’s decision-making.
However, many intelligence officers lack adequate training outside the schoolhouse to fulfill this role, and they must adapt their skill set from ground to aviation operations. The Army lacks standardized aviation-specific intelligence training for military intelligence professionals in U.S. Army Forces Command. To bridge this gap, the Army should integrate aviation support within existing intelligence schools or develop a new course similar to the Marine Corps’ Air Intelligence Officer Course.
When compared with a brigade combat team, a combat aviation brigade has only about one-third of the intelligence manpower and less than half the occupational specialties. In a typical combat aviation brigade, the intelligence warfighting function is organized into a brigade intelligence section and five battalion intelligence sections totaling approximately 36 intelligence personnel. Additionally, three Air Force staff weather officers are attached to each intelligence section during training exercises to provide weather support. A typical brigade combat team’s intelligence war-fighting function is organized into one brigade intelligence section, five battalion intelligence sections and one military intelligence company totaling over 100 intelligence personnel. Regarding intelligence specialties, a combat aviation brigade has all-source and imagery analysts, while a brigade combat team also has signals and human intelligence analysts, system maintainers and cryptologic linguists.

Within a combat aviation brigade intelligence section, the officer-in-charge position is billeted for an aviation captain, but often is filled by an intelligence officer or even left vacant. The assistant intelligence officer position is billeted for an intelligence first lieutenant, but also can be an intelligence second lieutenant. In theory, having an aviation captain and intelligence lieutenant working as a team could bridge the gap between aviation and intelligence.
However, it is common practice for a commander to assign an intelligence officer instead of an aviation officer in charge of the intelligence section at both the brigade and battalion levels. This practice creates a homogeneous intelligence section without an aviation officer’s insight to aid during analysis and planning. At the battalion level, another common practice is to direct the intelligence lieutenant to assume both roles of officer in charge and assistant intelligence officer if an aviation captain is not appointed. However, this practice relies on an inexperienced intelligence officer to become a battalion staff primary and aviation-specific intelligence subject-matter expert without developing their literacy in aviation or staff operations.
Threat Assessment
One way combat aviation brigade intelligence officers can learn to bridge the gap with pilots is by leveraging the knowledge and experience of their aviation mission survivability officer. These personnel are specialized warrant officers who ensure that missions are executed with maximum safety and efficiency by understanding threats against aircraft and integrating tactics, techniques and procedures to counter these threats. Aviation mission survivability officers are aviators at the battalion and brigade levels who understand aviation operations and information relevant to pilots and crew members conducting a mission.
By collaborating with these tactical experts, a combat aviation brigade intelligence officer can better understand what threats are most dangerous to aircraft and how environmental factors impact aviation operations.
While not assigned to the intelligence section, aviation mission survivability officers are a critical resource and provide a wealth of knowledge for combat aviation brigade intelligence officers to learn from.

Learning Curve
Military intelligence courses and training are not designed for Forces Command combat aviation brigade intelligence officers. The Military Intelligence Basic Officer Leader Course and Military Intelligence Captains Career Course are designed to develop brigade combat team battalion assistant intelligence officers and battalion intelligence officers, respectively. Intelligence Preparation of the Operational Environment lessons given during these courses focus on fighting an enemy force from a ground maneuver unit’s perspective, rarely with aviation support. While this instruction prepares graduates to work in a brigade combat team, intelligence officers assigned to aviation units must overcome a steeper learning curve once they arrive at their assignment.
Elective Army aviation-specific intelligence courses provide intelligence officers with excellent training, but are designed for select audiences and are more difficult to attend based on unit requirements and funding. The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) offers a three-week course called the Intelligence Support to Aviation Course, which familiarizes students with aviation assets and analysis tools to provide relevant intelligence to pilots.
However, many of these analysis tools are available only to personnel assigned to special operations units, which creates barriers for use in a Forces Command environment.
Another aviation-specific course is the two-week Air Cavalry Leaders Course, which is designed for Apache attack helicopter pilots and unmanned aircraft systems operators who operate in attack reconnaissance squadrons. This course focuses on doctrine, correlating intelligence requirements, synchronizing assets in a collection plan and defining their role within the parallel planning process in support of a brigade combat team. This course is beneficial to intelligence professionals assigned to air cavalry squadrons, but the primary audience for this course is attack aviators.
There is no training strategy designed to certify intelligence personnel assigned to an aviation unit, so combat aviation brigade intelligence officers are unable to quantifiably assess their intelligence readiness. The Army’s Military Intelligence Training Strategy is designed for military intelligence companies within brigade combat teams, which have the required personnel and equipment for certification. This training strategy is a four-tier standardized certification strategy for commanders to plan training and evaluate their tactical intelligence warfighting function capabilities in an objective and quantifiable manner.
Brigade combat teams use this strategy to certify military intelligence company and intelligence staff personnel at the individual, crew, platform and intelligence warfighting function levels on intelligence readiness. Without a military intelligence company, combat aviation brigades can use this training strategy only to certify their intelligence personnel at the individual level, severely limiting training value gained.

Alternative Approach
In the Marine Corps, there is a functional area or “feeder MOS” dedicated to aviation intelligence, with corresponding training pipelines. Air intelligence officers attend the 45-day Tactical Intelligence Officer Course, followed by the 74-day Air Intelligence Officer Course. The latter trains students in combat, operational and administrative tasks, emphasizing applying intelligence tactics, techniques and procedures related to the unique requirements of Marine Air-Ground Task Force operations.
These students conduct Intelligence Preparation of the Operational Environment, which identifies areas of influence unique to aviation operations and provides weather and terrain assessments to aid in aviation mission planning. For threat assessments, students identify enemy capabilities and intent to target aircraft, high-value targets and individuals, critical vulnerabilities and the enemy’s capability to maintain an integrated air defense system.
The Air Intelligence Officer Course instructs students about information and intelligence collection, reconnaissance and surveillance planning, targeting and other intelligence functions. The Army could adopt a similar training pipeline by implementing an aviation-specific intelligence course immediately following an officer’s graduation from the Military Intelligence Basic Officer Leader Course.
To increase aviation intelligence capabilities, the Army should integrate aviation intelligence support within existing schools, develop an aviation-specific intelligence course or design an intelligence training strategy specifically for aviation units.
The first proposed solution is to integrate aviation support to a brigade combat team during the Military Intelligence Basic Officer Leader Course and Military Intelligence Captains Career Course to replicate large-scale combat operations.
The next proposed solution is to develop an aviation intelligence course for military intelligence officers immediately following the Basic Officer Leader Course or Captains Career Course for branch transfers. This solution also could take the form of an Army Foundry Intelligence Training Program or mission training complex course for combat aviation brigade intelligence officers similar to the Marine Corps Air Intelligence Officer Course. This course should break down general mission sets for each aviation platform, aviation mission planning processes and briefings, weather and terrain impacts on aviation assets, and collection support to a division.
This course should cover threat air defense and radar system capabilities and vulnerabilities, helicopter landing zone and fueling, and rearming point terrain analysis and intelligence architecture interoperability with aviation platforms.
The final proposed solution is to design an intelligence training strategy specifically for aviation units at the brigade and battalion levels.
With the Army refocusing on large-scale combat operations and fighting near-peer threats, aviation operations are even more important than before to integrate with movement and maneuver, fires and sustainment. All intelligence professionals in today’s Army would benefit from understanding some form of intelligence support to aviation, since intelligence support to aviation is inherently tied into the combined arms fight.
Intelligence drives operations, so the Army’s intelligence professionals in aviation units must be properly trained to conduct aviation-specific mission analysis and provide intelligence support for a commander’s decision-making.
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Capt. Taylor Reim is a student in the Signals Intelligence Officer Course, Fort Huachuca, Arizona. Previously, she was the intelligence officer for the 2nd Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Kentucky. She graduated in 2020 from the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York.