Enhancing Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) Operations: A Multiple Study Evaluation of Structured Analytic Techniques (SATs) to Support ISR Tool Development

Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) operators are tasked to process, exploit, and disseminate (PED) collected intelligence in near real-time to support future mission direction. However, with continual advancements in our adversaries disruptive technologies, ISR collections may be vague, ill-defined, or incomplete. Moreover, it is imperative that appropriate decision-support tools and methodologies are developed and incorporated to augment and enhance ISR operators’ ability to decipher collected intelligence in order to identify essential elements of information (EEI). Correctly identifying EEIs can improve situational awareness and provide underlying evidence and justification with respect to military guidance and recommendations. Therefore, the 711th Human Performance Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base developed a decision-support tool – Sphinx. Sphinx is an ISR collaborative tool formulated upon structured analytic techniques (SATs) to systematically breakdown high-level commander questions (Priority Intelligence Requirements – PIRs) into subcomponents (EEIs, Indicators, and Observables) based on collected intelligence to enhance Joint All-Domain situational awareness leading to improved prediction and recommendation accuracy.