Fort Campbell, KY – Intelligence collection managers traditionally spend a significant amount of time manually creating and updating their Information Collection Synchronization Matrix (ICSM), which is a spreadsheet designed for collection managers to monitor their intelligence collection assets and collection priorities.
In response to this challenge, a team from the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and EagleWerx developed a new Collection Management Workspace (CMW). The CMW was tested on a secure network and is now ready for Army-wide deployment, this software reduces cognitive burden and aggregates intelligence indicators to better answer questions for senior leaders.
With increased efficiency, collection managers can provide greater support to their brigades, enhancing modernization and operational readiness.
The CMW is designed to automate and simplify the creation of an ICSM. Acting both as a planning and briefing tool, it allows collection managers to visualize which assets are collecting intelligence, what they are collecting, and how it relates to mission objectives. Through simply inputting data, users receive an automatically updated ICSM, synchronized to local time. This reduces manual workload and improves accuracy, thus ensuring more efficient intelligence operations.
“This product allows them [Collection Managers] to immediately define what the phases of the operation are and then allot and assign assets to it, almost like a timeline,” said Spc. Lance Lee, a Soldier at EagleWerx. “And instead of being a giant notebook or a buried file in a teams chat, it’s all there for you in a readily collected way that is digestible and purpose built for a warfighter in warfighter language.”
This program was designed at EagleWerx over the span of six months. The Soldiers and civilians, who come from the 101st Airborne Division and Civil Military Institute worked on the project directly with military intelligence professionals at the tactical level to be able to design this application the way they needed it. They put it under security checks and made it ready for Army wide distribution.
“We already have all the security scans done,” said Lee. “If you want this at another installation, we have to onboard with your G6 and then they can upload it to their SIPR software center and then access it from there.”
The software is now available for intelligence professionals across the Army, enabling units to save valuable time. Through automating ICSM updates, it allows collection managers to focus on other mission-essential tasks.
“It enhances my ability to support the brigade as a collection manager,” said 1st Lt. Jordan Lawson, a former Intelligence Collection Manager from 1st Mobile Brigade Combat Team. “It’s going to save hours for collection managers across the Army from using this tool. So, it’s already in mind, leaps and bounds ahead of where we were.”
