Army approves Combat Intelligence Company for evaluation

Courtesy Photo | U.S. Army Combat Developments Command oversaw the TARS-75 Study. (U.S. Army graphic)  

FORT HUACHUCA, ARIZONA, UNITED STATES

09.27.2022

Courtesy Story

U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence

by Michael E. Bigelow, INSCOM Command Historian

On October 1, 1974, the Department of the Army approved a one-year evaluation of the experimental Combat Intelligence Company. This company’s organization was based on the Tactical Reconnaissance and Surveillance-75 (TARS-75) study, which sought to improve intelligence at the division level.

In 1965, during the early stages of the Vietnam War, Gen. Harold K. Johnson, the Army chief of staff, directed the Army’s Combat Developments Command to undertake a study to determine the best operational concepts and force structure for collection, processing, and dissemination of intelligence. In particular, the study focused on how the intelligence sections within a division dealt with the increasing volume of information produced by the collection assets.

Maj. (later Lt. Gen.) James A. Williams was the project’s intelligence officer. Initially, Williams and his colleagues used computer simulations to examine the best mix of intelligence assets for a division of the mid-1970s. Analysis of these simulations led to a recommendation for an MI battalion at the division level. In addition to consolidating ground surveillance radars and remote sensors, this battalion included teams of intelligence personnel to support each of division’s combat echelons.

These intelligence teams were the heart of the TARS-75 improvements. At the division, brigade, and maneuver battalion-level, they were dubbed battlefield information control centers (BICCs). These centers had dedicated communications to control collection assets and to produce and disseminate intelligence. For the divisional cavalry squadron and artillery battalion, the teams manned battlefield information centers (BICs). Smaller than the BICCs, they were designed only to speed the flow of information to and from the supported unit. Both BICCs and BICs would permit the division’s G-2/S-2s to support their commanders with intelligence planning and analysis.

In June 1967, General Johnson approved the TARS-75 concepts for testing. In 1968, the first major assessment occurred in Vietnam when the 1st Infantry Division organized a test battalion under the auspices of the Target Acquisition and Combat Surveillance in Vietnam (TACSIV) Evaluation. Then in the fall of 1969, the 163d MI Battalion conducted further testing at Fort Hood. Both tests generally validated the TARS approach but raised questions of the size and structure of the division’s supporting unit. Initially, TARS-75 envisioned a MI battalion of more than 700 personnel. The TACSIV test used a four-company MI battalion, which proved to be a larger organization than necessary for a division. The Fort Hood test refined and reduced the numbers in the BICC/BIC sections, thereby reducing the battalion numbers to 400.

Two factors further reduced this smaller battalion to a company. First, with the BICC/BIC concept proving overwhelmingly successful, the Army’s combat developers decided to make those elements organic to the supported brigades and battalions. This eliminated one company from the proposed TARS battalion. At the same time, an MI battalion of any size in the division proved to be fiscally impossible. Consequently, the Army opted for a single Combat Intelligence Company that included imagery, interrogation, and counterintelligence assets, as well as surveillance radars and remote sensors.

It was this company-sized unit that the 2d Armored Division at Fort Hood began testing in February 1975. By September 1975, the division had completed its tests and recommended, with minor modifications, activation of the company. The Army’s Forces Command (FORSCOM) approved the company and the BICC/BIC concept for its divisions by July 1976.

• Date Taken: 09.27.2022
• Date Posted: 09.27.2022 13:03
• Story ID: 430176
• Location: FORT HUACHUCA, ARIZONA, US