Archives » Friday, January 18, 2008
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David Botti
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Jan 18, 2008 01:45 PM
A Marine Corps infantry battalion deploying to Iraq in early 2008 will have among its ranks a new breed of infantryman. According to the Marine Corps Times
the 3rd Battalion 4th Marines is testing a new program that brings
intelligence gathering and assessment efforts to the company level.
The Company Level Intelligence Cells (C-LIC's) were formed, in part,
from the lack of a streamlined way rifle companies deal with
intelligence in the battlefield. Over the course of the Iraq war many
units have developed their own programs, but information rarely gets
passed down to replacement units. Master Sgt. Willard Dickey,
intel-ops chief for the 1st Marine Division, told the paper:
Rifle companies use the databases for vital intelligence procured
from the local area, which can help avoid much of the time lost sending
intelligence requests to the battalion or regimental level, Dickey said.
“If
we can train ourselves at this level, we can produce the intelligence
we’re asking for,” which could save days of waiting for responses over
the duration of a unit’s deployment, he said.
To
staff the C-LIC program the Marine Corps is training Marines whose
primary specialty is as infantrymen. This gives them the advantage of
prior combat experience coupled with a new knowledge of the
intelligence field. Each rifle company (roughly 150 Marines) will have
with it one full intelligence Marine and four to five C-LIC Marines.
Capt. Gabe Diana, project officer for the C-LIC's, explained real-world
use of these Marines:
If, for example, a company commander wanted more information about
roadside bombs and small-arms attacks in his area, the C-LIC would
compile and analyze recent recorded events, then present the findings
to the company, Diana said.
“They give the brief, and then squad
leaders in the company can start putting requests for information in,”
Diana explained. “Squad leaders, team leaders, are starting to see what
the [C-LICs] can produce for them. And then, in turn, ‘here are areas
where I’d like more information’ and now it becomes cyclical. It
becomes a process, a battle drill, where the guys who are down on the
ground and are going to be conducting the patrolling can now go back
and pull information from these [C-LICs].”
The paper also reports the battalion will receive 48 micro-unmanned aerial vehicles with night vision.
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