ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how situational awareness informs and influences political and military decision-making bodies with regard to strategic and operational developments. Through superior intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), this role of air power contributes to an updated and relevant understanding of the politico-military-social environment in which advanced forces operate. The author emphasises ‘reconnaissance’ and ‘surveillance’, and discusses how these feed into tactical and strategic ‘intelligence’. Air power enthusiasts traditionally have believed in the speed of processes and had great trust in timely data from high-resolution reconnaissance. However, data from airborne platforms provides only a portion of the background for effective analysis; military leaders must devote much more effort to joint ISR combined with detailed knowledge of the actors of interest. Partly as a response to this challenge, but probably more because of the extraordinary technological progress experienced over the last decade in autonomous data analysis, an increased focus on ‘fusion intelligence’ and ‘joint ISR’ has emerged. This development of more integrated processes and the handling of mass information, however positive and necessary, also present difficulties when it comes to sharing intelligence and effective coalition warfighting. The challenge is technological, but even more a question of mind-set, trust, concepts, and doctrine.
