Agent: In intelligence usage, a person who engages in clandestine intelligence activity under the direction of an intelligence organization, but who is not an officer, employee, or co-opted worker of that organization. An individual who acts under the direction of an intelligence agency or security service to obtain, or assist in obtaining, information for intelligence or counterintelligence purposes.
AIA: Air Intelligence Agency, the predecessor to the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Agency (AF/ISR)
Air Surveillance: The systematic observation of air space by electronic, visual or other means, primarily for the purpose of identifying and determining the movements of aircraft and missiles, friendly and enemy, in the air space under observation.
Air Defense: All defensive measures designed to destroy attacking enemy aircraft or missiles in the atmosphere, or to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of such attack.
Air-to-Surface System: Slant range between launching aircraft and target at the time of
of missile launch.
Alert Rate : The percentage of the operational force that is maintained at a readiness condition.
All-Source Intelligence: Intelligence products and / or organizations and activities that
incorporate all sources of information, including human resources intelligence, imagery intelligence, measurement and signature intelligence, signals intelligence, and open source data, in the production of finished intelligence.
AOB: Air Order of Battle
AOR: Area of responsibility.
ASAT: Antisatellite.
ASM: Air-to-Surface Missile: an air-launched missile designed to attack land/sea targets.
Assessed Facility: A facility believed to exist based on intelligence reporting, although the specific location has not been confirmed. Also, facilities believed to exist based on evaluation of the number of facilities a given functional program should require and the scope of the country’s known underground program.
Assessment: Analysis of the security, effectiveness, and potential of an existing or planned intelligence activity. Judgment of the motives, qualifications, and characteristics of present or prospective employees or “agents.”.
ASW: Antisubmarine Warfare.
ATBM: Antitactical Ballistic Missile.
ATF: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; also known as BATF.
ATGM: Anti-Tank Guided Missile
ATSD(IO): Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Oversight
Attaché: A member of the diplomatic staff accredited to the host government.
Authenticate: A challenge given by voice or electrical means to attest to the authenticity of a message or transmission.
Authentication: A security measure designed to protect a communications system against acceptance of a fraudulent transmission or simulation by establishing the validity of a transmission, message, or originator. A means of identifying individuals and verifying their eligibility to receive specific categories of information. Evidence by proper signature or seal that a document is genuine and official. In evasion and recovery operations, the process whereby the identity of an evader is confirmed.
Authenticator: A symbol or group of symbols, or a series of bits, selected or derived in a prearranged manner and usually inserted at a predetermined point within a message or transmission for the purpose of attesting to the validity of the message or transmission.
Barrage Jamming: Simultaneous electromagnetic jamming over a broad band of frequencies.
Basic Cover: Coverage of any installation or area of a permanent nature with which later coverage can be compared to discover any changes that have taken place.
Basic Intelligence: Fundamental intelligence concerning the general situation, resources, capabilities, and vulnerabilities of foreign countries and areas that may be used as reference material in the planning of operations at any level and in evaluating subsequent information relating to the same subject.
Basic Encyclopedia: A compilation of identified installations and physical areas of
potential significance as objectives for attack.
BATF: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; also known as ATF.
Battle Damage Assessment: The timely and accurate estimate of damage resulting from the
the application of military force, either lethal or non-lethal, against a predetermined objective. Battle damage assessment can be applied to the employment of all types of weapon systems (air, ground, naval, and special forces weapon systems) throughout the range of military operations. Battle damage assessment is primarily an intelligence responsibility with required inputs and coordination from the operators. Battle damage assessment is composed of physical damage assessment, functional damage assessment, and target system assessment. Also called BDA.
BE: Basic Encyclopedia.
Biographical Intelligence: That component of intelligence which deals with individual foreign
foreign personalities of actual or potential importance.
BM: Ballistic Missile.
BW: Biological Warfare.
C3: Command, Control, and Communications.
C3I: Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence.
C4I: Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence.
Camouflage: The use of concealment and disguise to make an individual or object blend or reduce contrast with the background. It includes taking advantage of natural environment as well as the use of natural and artificial materials.
Capability: The ability to execute a specified course of action. (A capability may or may not be accompanied by an intention.).
CC&D: Camouflage, Concealment, and Deception.
CD-ROM: Compact Disk-Read Only Memory.
CEP: Circular Error Probable — The radius of a circle centered on the intended target, within which 50 percent of the arriving warheads are expected to fall.
Chaff: Radar confusion reflectors, which consist of thin, narrow metallic strips of various lengths and frequency responses, used to reflect echoes for confusion purposes. It creates an effect upon radar screens like that of a blizzard upon the human eye, making it difficult to distinguish individual targets.
CI: Counterintelligence: information gathered and activities conducted to protect against espionage, other intelligence activities, sabotage, or assassinations conducted by or on behalf of foreign governments or elements thereof, foreign organizations, or foreign persons, or international terrorist activities.
CIA: Central Intelligence Agency.
Cipher: Any cryptographic system in which arbitrary symbols or groups of symbols, represent units of plain text of regular length, usually single letters, or in which units of plain text are rearranged, or both, in accordance with certain predetermined rules.
CJCS: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Clandestine Collection: The acquisition of intelligence information in ways designed to
to assure the secrecy of the operation.
Clandestine: Secret or hidden; conducted with secrecy by design.
Classified Information: Official information which requires, in the interests of national
security, protection against unauthorized disclosure.
CM: Countermeasures.
CMO: Central MASINT Organization, the former name for DIA’s Directorate for MASINT and Technical Collection.
CMS: Community Management Staff, the predecessor for many of the functions now done by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).
Collection Manager: An individual with responsibility for the timely and efficient tasking of
organic collection resources and the development of requirements for theater and national assets that could satisfy specific information needs in support of the mission. Also called CM.
Collection Management: The process of converting intelligence requirements into collection requirements, establishing priorities, tasking or coordinating with appropriate collection sources or agencies, monitoring results and retasking, as required.
Collection Plan: A plan for collecting information from all available sources to meet intelligence requirements and for transforming those requirements into orders and requests to appropriate agencies.
Collection Asset: A collection system, platform, or capability that is supporting,
assigned, or attached to a particular commander.
Collection Requirement: An established intelligence need considered in the allocation of
of intelligence resources to fulfill the essential elements of information and other intelligence needs of a commander.
COM: Collection Operations Management.
COMINT: Communications Intelligence: technical and intelligence information derived from foreign communications by other than the intended recipients.
Compromise: The known or suspected exposure of clandestine personnel, installations, or other assets or of classified information or material, to an unauthorized person.
Compromised: A term applied to classified matter, knowledge of which has, in whole or in part, passed to an unauthorized person or persons, or which has been subject to risk of such passing.
COMPUSEC: Computer Security: the protection resulting from all measures to deny unauthorized access and exploitation of friendly computer systems.
COMSEC: Communications Security: The protection resulting from all measures designed to deny unauthorized persons information of value which might be derived from the possession and study of telecommunications.
Concealment: The protection from observation or surveillance.
Conditioning: The repeated presentation or transmission of signals, information, or activities to a foreign intelligence service with the objective of desensitizing its analytical elements to the point where they no longer view them with concern or alarm.
Contingency Plan: A plan for major contingencies that can reasonably be anticipated in the principal geographic subareas of the command.
Controlled Agent: A double agent.
COSPO: Community Open Source Program Office
Counterespionage: That aspect of counterintelligence designed to detect, destroy, neutralize,
exploit, or prevent espionage activities through identification, penetration, manipulation, deception, and repression of individuals, groups, or organizations conducting or suspected of conducting espionage activities.
Counterintelligence: Those activities that are concerned with identifying and counter-acting
the threat to security posed by hostile intelligence services or organizations or by individuals engaged in espionage, sabotage, subversion, or terrorism.
Countermeasures: That form of military science that, by the employment of devices or
techniques, has as its objective the impairment of the operational effectiveness of enemy activity.
Counternarcotics: Offensive measures taken to prevent, deter, and respond to narcotics trafficking.
Cover: The action by land, air, or sea forces to protect by offense, defense, or threat of either or both. Also, those measures necessary to give protection to a person, plan, operation, formation, or installation from the enemy intelligence effort and leakage of information.
Coverage: The ground area represented on imagery, photomaps, mosaics, maps, and other geographical presentation systems.
Covert Action: A operation designed to influence foreign governments, events, organizations, or persons in support; it may include political, economic, propaganda, or paramilitary activities. Covert action is referred to in Executive Order Number 12036 as special activities.
Covert: Disguised to conceal the origin or identity of the sponsor or perpetrator.
CRM: Collection Requirements Management: the authoritative development and control of collection, processing, exploitation, and/or reporting requirements that normally result in either the direct tasking of assets over which the collection manager has authority, or the generation of tasking requests to collection management authorities at a higher, lower, or lateral echelon to accomplish the collection mission.
Cruise Missile: An aerodynamic missile that uses an autonomous, programmed, powered trajectory through most of its flight to navigate to the target area.
Cryptography: The enciphering of plain text so that it will be unintelligible to an unauthorized recipient.
CW: Chemical Warfare.
Damage Assessment: The determination of the effect of attacks on targets. Also, in Intelli-
gence , a determination of the effect of a compromise of classified
information on national security.
DARPA: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
DAS: Defense Attaché System
Data: A representation of facts, concepts, information, or instructions suitable for communications, interpretation, or processing by humans or system.
DATT: Defense Attaché.
DCI: Director of Central Intelligence
DCS: Deputy Chief of Staff.
DCSINT: Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence (Army)
DEA: Drug Enforcement Administration
Deception: Those measures designed to mislead the enemy by manipulation, distortion, or falsification of evidence to induce him to react in a manner prejudicial to his interests.
Decipher: To convert an enciphered communication into its equivalent plain text.
Declassification: The determination that in the interests of national security, classified information no longer requires any degree of protection against unauthorized disclosure, coupled with removal or cancellation of the classification designation.
Declassify: To cancel the security classification of an item of classified matter.
Decode: To convert an encoded message into plain text.
Decoy: An imitation in any sense of a person, object, or phenomenon which is intended to deceive enemy surveillance devices or mislead enemy evaluation. Also called dummy.
Defector: A national of a designated country who has escaped from its control or who, being outside its jurisdiction and control, is unwilling to return and who is of special value to another government because he is able to add valuable new or confirmatory intelligence information to existing knowledge about his country.
Demonstration: An attack or show of force on a front where a decision is not sought, made with the aim of deceiving the enemy.
Denial Measure: An action to hinder or deny the enemy the use of space, personnel, or facilities. It may include destruction, removal, contamination, or erection of obstructions.
DEW: Distant Early Warning; Directed-Energy Weapon.
DF: Direction Finding.
DHS: Defense HUMINT Service
DIA: Defense Intelligence Agency
DIAC: Defense Intelligence Analysis Center — the analytical center for the Defense Intelligence Agency, located on Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, DC.
DIN: Defense Intelligence Network: the CNN for DoD Intelligence
DIO: Defense Intelligence Officer.
Directed Energy: An umbrella term covering technologies that relate to the production of a beam of concentrated electromagnetic energy or atomic or subatomic particles. Also called DE.
Directed-Energy Device: A system using directed energy primarily for a purpose other than as
than as a weapon. Directed-energy devices may produce effects that could allow the device to be used as a weapon against certain threats, for example, laser rangefinders and designators used against sensors that are sensitive to light.
Directed-Energy Weapon: A system using directed energy primarily as a direct means to
to damage or destroy enemy equipment, facilities, and personnel.
Direction Finding: A procedure for obtaining bearings of radio frequency emitters by using a highly directional antenna and a display unit on an intercept receiver or ancillary equipment.
DIRNSA: Director, National Security Agency
Disaffected Person: A person apparently disenchanted with his or her current situation who
who may therefore be exploitable for intelligence purposes (e.g., by the willingness to become an agent or defector).
Disguise: Concealment or misrepresentation of the physical characteristics or true nature or identity of a person or object.
Disinformation: A Soviet concept and technique of disseminating intentionally misleading information or intelligence to influence external or internal opinion. Disinformation operations differ from conventional propaganda in that their true origins are concealed and ordinarily involve some form of clandestine action.
Dispersal: Relocation of forces for the purpose of increasing survivability.
Dissemination: The timely conveyance or accessing of intelligence in appropriate form and by any suitable means to or by those who need it.
Diversion: The act of drawing the attention and forces of an enemy from the point of the principal operation; an attack, alarm, or feint that diverts attention.
DNA: Defense Nuclear Agency (now a part of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency).
DNI: Director of National Intelligence; also Director of Naval Intelligence.
DoD: Department of Defense.
DOE: Department of Energy
Double Agent: Agent in contact with two opposing intelligence services, only one of which is aware of the double contact or quasi-intelligence services.
Downgrade: To determine that classified information requires, in the interests of national security, a lower degree of protection against unauthorized disclosure than currently provided, coupled with a changing of the classification designation to reflect such lower degree.
Dummy: A simulative device that has few or no operating features such as nonfunctional airfields, aircraft, ammunition dumps, tanks, guns, paratroopers, etc. Dummy devices are not necessarily intended to deceive as are decoys, but could be used for training or display purposes.
E&E: Escape and Evasion.
Early Warning: Timely notice of an attack or other military action. In deception supporting military operations, early warning is the major element to be nullified to achieve surprise.
ECCM: Electronic Counter-Countermeasures: the division of electronic warfare involving actions taken to ensure the effective use of the electromagnetic spectrum despite an adversary’s use of electronic countermeasures.
ECM: Electronic Countermeasures: that division of electronic warfare involving actions taken to prevent or reduce an adversary’s effective use of the electromagnetic spectrum. Electronic countermeasures include electronic jamming, which is the deliberate radiation, reradiation, or reflection of electromagnetic energy with the object of impairing the uses of electronic equipment used by an adversary; and electronic deception, which is similar but is intended to mislead an adversary in the interpretation of information received by his electronic system. ECM may be “passive” such as decoys and window, or “active” such as jamming.
EEI: Essential Elements of Information: the critical items of information regarding the enemy and the environment needed by the commander by a particular time to relate with other available information and intelligence in order to assist in reaching a logical decision.
Electro-Optical Intelligence: Intelligence other than signals intelligence derived from the op-
tical monitoring of the electromagnetic spectrum from ultraviolet (0.01 micrometers) through far infrared (1,000 micrometers), i.e., ultraviolet, visible, and infrared. MASINT EO provides detailed information on the radiant intensities, dynamic motion, spectral and spatial characteristics, and the materials composition of a target. Electro-optical data collection has broad application to a variety of military, civil, economic, and environmental targets. EO sensor devices include radiometers, spectrometers, non-literal imaging systems, lasers, or laser radar (LADAR).
Electromagnetic: Radiation waves accelerated by electric charges that vary by frequency.
Electromagnetic Spectrum: The range of frequencies of electromagnetic radiation from zero
to infinity. It is divided into 26 alphabetically designated bands.
Electronic Jamming: The deliberate radiation, reradiation, or reflection of electromagnetic
energy with the object of impairing the use of electronic devices, equipment, or systems being used by the enemy.
ELINT: Electronic Intelligence: technical and geolocation intelligence derived from foreign non-communications electromagnetic radiations emanating from other than nuclear detonations or radioactive sources.
EMCON: Emission Control: the selective and controlled use of electromagnetic, acoustic, or other emitters to optimize command and control capabilities while minimizing, for operations security.
ÉMIGRÉ: A person who departs from his country for any lawful reason with the intention of permanently resettling elsewhere.
Encipher: To convert plain text into unintelligible form by means of a cipher system.
Encode: To convert plain text into a different form by means of a code.
Encrypt: To convert plain text into unintelligible forms by means of a cryptosystem. (Note: The term “encrypt” covers the meanings of “encipher” and “encode.”).
Encryption: A method of applying a cryptographic key to plain text to encipher or encrypt thereby protecting the data from those not in possession of the key.
EO: Electro-Optical.
EOB: Electronic Order of Battle
Espionage: Intelligence activity directed toward the acquisition of information through clandestine means and proscribed by the laws of the country against which it is committed. Spying in the popular sense.
EUCOM: European Command
Evaluation: Appraisal of the worth of an intelligence activity, information, or product in terms of its contribution to a specific goal; or the credibility, reliability, pertinency, accuracy, or usefulness of information in terms of an intelligence need. Evaluation may be used without reference to cost or risk, particularly when contrasted with assessment. Evaluation is also a process in the production step of the intelligence cycle.
EW: Early Warning.
EW: Electronic Warfare: Any military action involving the use of electromagnetic and directed energy to control the electromagnetic spectrum or to attack the enemy.
Exploitation: The process of obtaining intelligence information from any source and taking advantage of it for intelligence purposes.
FAA: Federal Aviation Administration
Fabrication: Information invented or prepared by individuals without genuine intelligence resources, usually for personal gain. Partially or totally false information, sometimes in documentary form and purporting to originate from legitimate intelligence sources, disseminated in order to harass, embarrass, or discredit an individual, a group, or a nation.
False Flag/False Colors: Development or execution of any initiative or operation under
under false national sponsorship or credentials. For example, purchase of embargoed strategic materials by a third country for reshipment to the embargoed country is a false flag activity. The Russian term is foreign flag.
FBI: Federal Bureau of Investigations
FBIS: Foreign Broadcast Information System
FISINT: Foreign Instrumentation Signals Intelligence: technical and intelligence information derived from the intercept of foreign electromagnetic emissions associated with the testing and operational deployment of non-US aerospace, surface, and subsurface systems. Foreign instrumentation signals intelligence is a subcategory of signals intelligence. Foreign instrumentation signals include, but are not limited to, telemetry, beaconry, electronic interrogators, and video data links.
FOIA: Freedom of Information Act
Foreign Intelligence: Information relating to capabilities, intentions, and activities of foreign
powers, organizations, or persons, but not including counterintelligence, except for information on international terrorist activities.
FROG: Free Rocket Over Ground.
FSTC: Foreign Science and Technology Center (forerunner of the National Ground Intelligence Center in Charlottesville, Virginia).
Gaming: A process whereby individuals imagine themselves in the place of foreign decision makers and study their personal peculiarities and the intelligence available to them in order to interpret their current actions and predict future behavior.
GDIP: General Defense Intelligence Program
GMI: General Military Intelligence.
GOB: Ground Order of Battle.
GRU: Glavnoye Razvedyvatelnoye Upravleniye: Russian Military Intelligence.
Host Nation: A nation which receives the forces and/or supplies of allied nations and/or NATO organizations to be located on, to operate in, or to transit through its territory.
HPSCI: House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Human Sources: A person who wittingly or unwittingly conveys by any means information of potential intelligence value to an intelligence activity.
HUMINT: Human Intelligence: A category of intelligence derived from information collected and provided by human sources.
Hyperspectral: A high spectral resolution sensor, having hundreds of spectral bands spread over a wide swath of the electromagnetic spectrum, each with resolution between 0.1 and 10 nanometers.
I&W: Indications and Warning: Those intelligence activities intended to detect and report time-sensitive intelligence information on foreign developments that could involve a threat to the United States or allied/coalition military, political, or economic interests or to US citizens abroad.
ICBM: Intercontinental Ballistic Missile: a ballistic missile with a range over 5,500 kilometers.
IDB: Integrated Data Base.
IG: Inspector General.
IIR: Intelligence Information Report.
Illegal: An officer or employee of an intelligence organization who is dispatched abroad and who has no overt connection with the intelligence organization with which he is connected or with the government operating that intelligence organization. Originally a Soviet term.
Illegal Residency: An intelligence apparatus established in a foreign country and composed of one or more intelligence officers and which has no apparent connection with the sponsoring intelligence organization or with the government of the country operating the intelligence organization.
Illegal Agent: An agent operated by an illegal residency or directly by the headquarters of an intelligence organization.
Imagery: Collectively, the representations of objects reproduced electronically or by optical means on film, electronic display devices, or other media.
Imagery Exploitation: The cycle of processing and printing imagery to the positive or nega-
tive state, assembly into imagery packs, identification, interpretation, mensuration, information extraction, the preparation of reports, and the dissemination of information.
Imagery Interpretation: The process of location, recognition, identification, and description
of objects, activities, and terrain represented on imagery.
Imaging Radar: A high resolution radar that is designed to provide data that can be used to determine the shape of targets such as tanks, aircraft, ships, or satellites.
IMINT: Imagery Intelligence: intelligence derived from the exploitation of collection by visual photography, infrared sensors, lasers, electro-optics, and radar sensors such as synthetic aperture radar wherein images of objects are reproduced optically or electronically on film, electronic display devices, or other media.
In The Clear: Transmitted in plain language rather than being encrypted. Also referred to as plain text.
Indication: Information in various degrees of evaluation, all of which bears on the intention of a potential enemy to adopt or reject a course of action.
Indicator: In intelligence usage, an item of information which reflects the intention or capability of a potential enemy to adopt or reject a course of action.
Infiltration: The movement through or into an area or territory occupied by either friendly or enemy troops or organizations. The movement is made, either by small groups or by individuals, at extended or irregular intervals. When used in connection with the enemy, it infers that contact is avoided. In intelligence usage, placing an agent or other person in a target area in hostile territory, and usually involves crossing a frontier or other guarded line.
Informant: A person who, wittingly or unwittingly, provides information to an agent, a clandestine service, or the police.
Information Report: Report used to forward raw information collected to fulfill intelligence
requirements.
Information: Facts, data, or instructions in any medium or form.
Information Warfare: Actions taken to achieve information superiority by affecting adversary
information, information-based processes, information systems, and computer-based networks while leveraging and defending one’s own information, information-based processes, information systems, and computer-based networks. Also called IW.
INFOSEC: Information Security is the protection and defense of information and information systems against unauthorized access or modification of information, whether in storage, processing, or transit, and against denial of service to authorized users. Information security includes those measures necessary to detect, document, and counter such threats. Information security is composed of computer security and communications security.
Infrared Film: Film carrying an emulsion especially sensitive to “near-infrared.” Used to photograph through haze, because of the penetrating power of infrared light; and in camouflage detection to distinguish between living vegetation and dead vegetation or artificial green pigment.
Infrared Imagery: That imagery produced as a result of sensing electromagnetic radiations emitted or reflected from a given target surface in the infrared position of the electromagnetic spectrum (approximately 0.72 to 1,000 microns).
INR: Bureau of Intelligence and Research (State Department)
INSCOM: Intelligence and Security Command (Army)
Intelligence: The product resulting from the collection, processing, integration, analysis, evaluation, and interpretation of available information concerning foreign countries or areas. Information and knowledge about an adversary obtained through observation, investigation, analysis, or understanding.
Intelligence Cycle: The steps by which information is converted into intelligence and made
made available to users.
IOB: Intelligence Oversight Board (sometimes called the PIOB for President’s Intelligence Oversight Board)
IOC: Initial Operational Capability: date when a missile system is judged to have completed a successful R&D test program, been involved in some training, been deployed at an operational site or on an operational platform, and is capable of performing its assigned mission.
IR: Intelligence Report.
IRBM: Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile: a ballistic missile with a range between 3,000 and 5,500 km.
IRINT: Infrared Intelligence is a subcategory of electro-optical that includes data collection across the infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Spectral and thermal properties are measured.
IRS: Internal Revenue Service
JAC: Joint Analysis Center (the JIC for the European Command, located at Molesworth, England).
JCS: Joint Chiefs of Staff.
JIC: Joint Intelligence Center.
JMITC: Joint Military Intelligence Training Center (DIA)
Joint Intelligence Center: Analytic element and intelligence production center supporting a
Unified Command that also accomplishes DoDIPP shared production on topics/areas within the Command’s AOR for the DoDIPC.
JWICS: Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications Systems
Key: The rules for organization or arrangement of letters within a CIPHER alphabet, the pattern of rearrangement in a trans-position CIPHER or the settings of a CIPHER machine.
KGB: Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti (the Committee for State Security): an intelligence and security agency of the Soviet Union.
Known Facility: A facility that has been detected, confirmed, and categorized by function with some degree of confidence.
LASINT: Laser Intelligence: integration and specialized application of MASINT EO, and other collection to gather data on laser systems. The focus of the collection is on laser detection, laser threat warning, and precise measurement of the frequencies, power levels, wave propagation, determination of power source, and other technical and operating characteristics associated with laser systems — strategic and tactical weapons, range finders, and illuminators.
Leak: To disclose or compromise presumably classified information, intentionally or unintentionally.
Legal: An intelligence officer who holds a legitimate embassy position or is assigned to some other legitimate organization (a Soviet term).
Legal Residency: An intelligence apparatus in a foreign country and composed of intelligence officers assigned as overt representatives of their government but not necessarily identified as intelligence officers.
LITINT: Literature Intelligence
Low Observable: Describes objects that have a reduced signature in at least one part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
LRCM: Long-Range Cruise Missile: a cruise missile with a range over 600 km.
Maritime Intelligence: Intelligence relating to all uses of the world’s oceans, including mili-
tary, civil, and scientific.
MaRV: Maneuverable Reentry Vehicle: an RV capable of performing flight maneuvers during the reentry phase.
MASINT: Measurement and Signature Intelligence: scientific and technical intelligence obtained by quantitative and qualitative analysis of data (metric, angle, spatial, wavelength, time dependence, modulation, plasma, and hydromagnetic) derived from specific technical sensors for the purpose of identifying any distinctive features associated with the target. The detected feature may be either reflected or emitted.
Masking : An electronic warfare term for the use of additional transmitters to conceal the location, source, or purpose of a particular signal or other electromagnetic radiation.
Maskirovka: Literally camouflage – a form of support for combat operations, its purpose being to conceal the activities and disposition of friendly troops and to mislead the enemy with regard to the grouping and intentions of such troops. Camouflage measures are also implemented in the deep rear, within the framework of civil defense. Although the term “Maskirovka” is often literally translated in the west as “camouflage,” the Russian connotation is far broader. It encompasses a doctrine, applicable in peacetime as well as combat, governing all measures to degrade or deny useful information to a foreign intelligence service.
Materials Intelligence: The collection, processing, and scientific analysis of gas, liquid, or solid
or solid samples. Materials intelligence is critical to collection against nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare threats. It is also important to analyzing military and civil manufacturing activities, public health concerns, and environmental problems. Samples are collected by both automatic equipment, such as air samplers, and directly by humans with access to areas of interest. Samples, once collected, may be rapidly characterized or undergo extensive forensic laboratory analysis to determine the identity and characteristics of the sources of the samples.
Meaconing: A system of receiving radio beacon signals and rebroadcasting them on the same frequency to confuse navigation. The meaconing stations cause inaccurate bearings to be obtained by aircraft or ground stations.
Medical Intelligence: That category of intelligence resulting from collection, evaluation, analy-
sis, and interpretation of foreign medical, bio-scientific, and environmental information which is of interest to strategic planning and to military medical planning and operations for the conservation of the fighting strength of friendly forces and the formation of assessments of foreign medical capabilities in both military and civilian sectors. Also called MEDINT.
MIB: Military Intelligence Board.
MID: Military Intelligence Digest.
MIDB: Modern Integrated Data Base
MIJI: Meaconing, Intrusion, Jamming, and Interference.
MILCAP: Military Capabilities
Military Intelligence: Intelligence on any foreign military or military-related situation or acti-
vity which is significant to military policy-making or the planning and conduct of military operations and activities.
Military Intelligence Board: The senior decision-making forum for substantive, budgetary,
and managerial issues.
Military Capabilities Study: Baseline DoD study of the military capabilities of a given
country in a standardized format.
MIRV: Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicles: a payload package consisting of two or more Rvs, each of which is capable of being directed at a separate aiming point.
Misperception: The formation of an incomplete or inaccurate image or perception of some aspect of reality. The faulty image may be formed due to a lack of information or intentionally erroneous information provided to the perceiver.
Missile: An unmanned, self-propelled weapon whose trajectory or course, while in flight, is controlled.
Mock-Up: A three-dimensional model of an object, installation, or piece of equipment, normally full-sized, built for study, analysis, or training. Although it can be misidentified as the genuine article, a mock-up is not normally intended to deceive.
MRBM: Medium-Range Ballistic Missile: a ballistic missile with a range between 1,000 and 3,000 km.
MRV: Multiple Reentry Vehicle: a payload package consisting of two or more RVs. The individual RVs are not independently targetable or maneuverable.
MSIC: Missile and Space Intelligence Center
Multi-Spectral Imagery: The image of an object obtained simultaneously in a number of
of discrete spectral bands.
Multispectral Sensors: Multispectral sensor systems are detection systems that operate in
two or more spectral bands; they can be a combination of active and passive sensors. They may also combine microwave radar, millimeter wave radar, laser radar, visual imaging infrared, and television.
Multispectral: Generally denotes remote sensing in two or more spectral bands, such as visible and infrared. Spectral imagery is data collected in a particular limited region or subset of the electromagnetic spectrum. Multispectral imagery is data collected simultaneously from two or more spectral regions or bands–the same scene is imaged in several spectral bands at the same time by the same sensor. A multispectral sensor has a broad bandwidth and can have “tens” of bands.
NASIC: National Air and Space Intelligence Center, formerly known as the National Air Intelligence Center (NAIC). In the Cold War era, NASIC was called the Foreign Technology Division (FTD)
National Foreign Intelligence Board: The senior Intelligence Community advisory body of
body to the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI); it includes senior representatives from all organizations involved in the collection, processing, and analysis of intelligence. The intelligence chiefs of the military Services are observers. The Board is chaired by the DCI and reviews all substantive intelligence matters, including production, review, and coordination of all national foreign intelligence; arrangements with foreign governments on intelligence matters; and protection of intelligence sources and methods.
National Intelligence Estimate (NIE): A strategic estimate of the capabilities, vulnerabili-
ties, and probable courses of action of foreign countries which is produced at the national level as a composite of the views of the Intelligence Community. A thorough assessment of a situation in the foreign environment which is relevant to the formulation of a foreign, economic, and national security policy, and which projects probable future courses of action and developments. It is structured to illuminate different points of view within the Intelligence Community, and is issued by the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) with the advice of the National Foreign Intelligence Board.
NFIB: National Foreign Intelligence Board.
NFIC: National Foreign Intelligence Community
NFIP: National Foreign Intelligence Program
NGA: National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
NGIC: National Ground Intelligence Center
NIC: National Intelligence Council
NIE: National Intelligence Estimate.
NIMA: National Imagery and Mapping Agency — forerunner to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).
NIO: National Intelligence Officer.
NIST: National Intelligence Support Team.
NMIC: National Maritime Intelligence Center (a building in Suitland, Maryland, which houses the Office of Naval Intelligence, Marine Corps Intelligence, and Coast Guard Intelligence): .
NMJIC: National Military Joint Intelligence Center
NOB: Naval Order of Battle.
Noise: Information or natural phenomena that interferes with the perception of signals of interest. An unwanted receiver response, other than another signal (interference). Noise may be audible in voice communication equipment or visible in equipment such as radar.
Notional: Fictitious, imaginary, existing only in the perception of the target. Antonym of real, true, genuine, or legitimate.
NRO: National Reconnaissance Office
NSA: National Security Agency
NSC: National Security Council
NSRL: National SIGINT Requirements List
NSTL: National Strategic Threat List (FBI)
NUCINT: Nuclear Intelligence.
Nuclear Intelligence: Information derived from nuclear radiation and other physical
phenomena associated with nuclear weapons, reactors, processes, materials, devices, and facilities. Nuclear monitoring can be done remotely or during on-site inspections of nuclear facilities.
OB: Order of Battle.
Obscurants: A gas, liquid, solid particle, or combination of these, either man-made (such as smoke) or natural (such as dust), suspended in the atmosphere, that may attenuate or block any portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. This can affect such things as visual observation, laser rangefinders or designators, radars, and thermal sites.
OEI: Office of Energy Intelligence
OMB: Office of Management and Budget
ONI: Office of Naval Intelligence
Open Source Intelligence: Unclassified data available to the public, either for free or for a fee, which has Intelligence value. Also called OSINT.
Open: Not classified or concealed.
Operations Security: A process of identifying, analyzing, and reducing information and actions
attendant to friendly military operations which an adversary might exploit. Those measures designed to protect information concerning planned, ongoing, and completed operations against unauthorized disclosure.
OPLAN: Operations Plan.
OPSEC: Operations Security.
OSD: Office of the Secretary of Defense.
OSINT: Open Source Intelligence.
OSIS: Open Source Information System
OSS: Office of Strategic Services
Overt Operation: An operation conducted openly, without concealment.
Overt: Open; done without attempt at concealment.
Passive: In surveillance, an adjective applied to actions or equipments which emit no energy capable of being detected.
PBV: Post-Boost Vehicle: a platform carried in a missile’s payload that is maneuvered by its own propulsion system to separately target the several RVs in a MIRV system.
PD: Presidential Directive
PDD: Presidential Decision Directive
PENAIDS: Penetration Aids: any devices which improve the warhead’s ability to successfully penetrate defenses. Such devices include decoys, thermal shrouds, chaff, jammers, etc.
Penetration: The recruitment of agents within or the infiltration of agents or technical monitoring devices in an organization or group for the purpose of acquiring information or of influencing its activities.
PFIAB: President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Former name of the PIAB
PGM: Precision-Guided Munition.
Photographic Intelligence: The collected products of photographic interpretation, classified
and evaluated for intelligence use. Also called PHOTINT or IMINT.
PIAB: President’s Intelligence Advisory Board
Piece: An item of information which, although seemingly unimportant in itself, is required to make some other piece of information clear or to verify some possibly misleading bit of evidence obtained through some means other than espionage.
PIOB: President’s Intelligence Oversight Board (sometimes called the IOB)
PIR: Priority Intelligence Requirements.
Plain Text: Normal text or language, or any symbol or signal, that conveys information without any hidden or secret meaning.
Plant: To insert information into a target’s intelligence channels. An individual infiltrated into a foreign organization. False or misleading information that the target has been permitted or helped to collect.
Plausible Denial: Official disclaimer supported by a believable cover story.
Political Intelligence: Intelligence concerning foreign and domestic policies of governments
and the activities of political movements.
Possible: A term used to qualify a statement made under conditions wherein some evidence exists to support the statement. This evidence is sufficient to warrant mention, but insufficient to warrant assumption as true.
Precision-Guided Munitions: A weapon that uses a seeker to detect electromagnetic energy
reflected from a target or reference point, and through processing, provides guidance commands to a control system that guides the weapon to the target.
Priority Intelligence Requirements: Those intelligence requirements for which a commander
has an anticipated and stated priority in the task of planning and decision making. Also called PIRs.
Probability of Damage: The probability that damage will occur to a target expressed as a
percentage or as a decimal.
Probable: A term used to qualify a statement made under conditions wherein the available evidence indicates that the statement is factual until there is further evidence in confirmation or denial.
Propaganda: Any form of communication in support of national objectives designed to influence the opinions, emotions, attitudes, or behavior of any group in order to benefit the sponsor, either directly or indirectly. Any form of communication aimed at implanting data, ideas, or images in human minds to influence the thinking, emotions, or actions of individuals or groups.
Provocation: An incitement in intelligence and related operations designed to elicit a detectable reaction which can be turned to the originator’s advantage.
Psychological Warfare: The planned use of propaganda and other psychological actions having
the primary purpose of influencing the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of hostile foreign groups in such a way as to support the achievement of national objectives. Also called PSYWAR.
Psychological Operations: Planned operations to convey selected information and indicators
to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals. The purpose of psychological operations is to induce or reinforce foreign attitudes and behavior favorable to the originator’s objectives. Also called PSYOP.
PSYOP: Psychological Operations.
PSYWAR: Psychological Warfare.
RADAR: Radio Detection and Ranging: a radio detection device that provides information on range, azimuth and/or elevation of objects.
Radar Absorbent Material: Materials with low surface reflectivity at radar frequencies. The
The performance of RAM is expressed in dB and is a ratio of the energy returned by the material to that returned by a flat metal plate. Coatings applied to potential radar reflecting objects to attenuate or scatter the reflected radar energy. A material that absorbs microwaves and prevents their reflection to the source.
Radar Absorbing Material: A material, whether applied to or built into an object or applied to
or built into a cover that is then placed on an object, that absorbs microwaves and prevents their reflection to the source.
Radar Camouflage: The use of radar absorbent or reflecting materials to change the radar
radar echoing properties of a surface of an object. The process of making an object less detectable by radar in the presence of system noise and target background clutter.
Radar Clutter: Unwanted signals, echoes, or images on the face of the display tube, which interfere with observation of desired signals.
Radar Coverage: The limits within which objects can be detected by one or more radar stations.
Radar Cross Section (RCS): A target’s RCS is defined as 4(pi) times the ratio of the power
per unit solid angle reflected by the target in the direction of the illuminating source (radar) to the power per unit of the incident wave at the target.
Radar Imagery: Imagery produced by recording radar waves reflected from a given target surface. A radar image is formed by sending out radar pulses and recording the energy that returns to the sensor. It is often referred to as “nonliteral” because an object may look different than it does visually. This imagery can be collected day or night and in bad weather.
Radar Intelligence: Intelligence derived from data collected by radar. Also called
RADINT. The active or passive collection of energy reflected from a target or object by line-of-sight, bi-static, or over-the-horizon radar systems. RADINT collection provides information on radar cross sections, tracking, precise spatial measurements of components, motion and radar reflectance, and absorption characteristics for dynamic targets and objectives.
Radar Transparent Material: Materials which do not attenuate radar signals when they
they pass through it.
RADINT: Radar Intelligence.
Radio Silence: A condition in which all or certain radio equipment capable of radiation is kept inoperative.
Radiofrequency (RF) Weapons: A class of weapons designed to cause physical destruction by
tion by coupling sufficient energy into the systems to burn out sensitive electronics. (e.g., electromagnetic-pulse (EMP) weapons).
RAM: Radar Absorbent Material or Radar Absorbing Material.
RCS: Radar Cross Section.
REC: Radio-Electronic Combat: the Russian term for Electronic Warfare.
Recce: Reconnaissance.
Reconnaissance: A mission undertaken to obtain, by visual observation or other detection methods, information about the activities and resources of an enemy or potential enemy, or to secure data concerning the meteorological, hydrographic, or geographic characteristics of a particular area.
Reconnaissance Photography: Photography taken to obtain information on the results of
bombing, or on enemy movements, concentrations, activities, and forces. The primary purposes do not include making maps, charts, or mosaics.
Remote Sensing: Remote sensing is a tool using scientific techniques to obtain information about phenomena without direct physical contact. The more common techniques employ imaging sensor systems and image processing to enhance and extract information of interest.
Repeater-Jammer: A receiver transmitter device which amplifies, multiplies and retransmits the signals received, for purposes of deception or jamming.
Resolution: A measurement of the smallest detail which can be distinguished by a sensor system under specific conditions.
RF: Radio Frequency.
RFI: Request for Information
RINT: Unintentional Radiation Intelligence.
Risk Management (RM): A process by which decision makers reduce or offset risk.
Risk: Probability and severity of loss linked to hazards.
RPV: Remotely Piloted Vehicle
RTM: Radar Transparent Material.
Ruse: In military deception, a trick of war designed to deceive the adversary, usually involving the deliberate exposure of false information to the adversary’s intelligence collection system.
RV Weight: The total weight of the object which survives re-entry in delivering the warhead to the target.
S&TI: Scientific and Technical Intelligence
SAC: Strategic Air Command (now merged into the Air Combat Command).
Safe House: An innocent-appearing house or premises established by an organization for the purpose of conducting clandestine or covert activity in relative security. A secure facility, unknown to adversary intelligence and security services, used for agent meetings, defector housing or debriefing, and similar support functions.
Sanitize: Revise a report or other document in such a fashion as to prevent identification of sources, or of the actual persons and places with which it is concerned, or of the means by which it was acquired. Usually involves deletion or substitution of names and other key details.
SAR: Synthetic Aperture Radar; also Search and Rescue.
SCI: Sensitive Compartment Information
SCIF: Special Compartmented Information Facility.
SEAD: Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses.
Secure: In an operational context, to gain possession of a position or terrain feature, with or without force, and to make such disposition as will prevent, as far as possible, its destruction or loss by enemy action.
Security: Measures taken by a military unit, an activity or installation to protect itself against all acts designed to, or which may, impair its effectiveness. With respect to classified matter, it is the condition that prevents unauthorized persons from having access to official information that is safeguarded in the interests of national security.
Security Classification: A category to which national security information and material is
assigned to denote the degree of damage that unauthorized disclosure would cause to national defense or foreign relations of the United States and to denote the degree of protection required.
Seismic Intelligence: The passive collection and measurement of seismic waves or vibra-
tions in the earth surface. (For example: seismic and hydro-acoustic systems detect, identify, and locate nuclear explosions on the earth’s surface, underground, and in the ocean.) .
Self Deception: Incorrect conclusions drawn by the target because of faulty reasoning, either with or without the assistance of the deceiver.
SIGINT: Signals Intelligence.
Signal: As applied to electronics, any transmitted electrical impulse.
Signals Intelligence: A category of intelligence comprising either individually or in combina-
tion all communications intelligence, electronics intelligence, and foreign instrumentation signals intelligence, however transmitted. Also called SIGINT.
Signature: Any characteristic or series of characteristics by which a material may be recognized. Used in the sense of spectral signature, as in photographic color reflectance. A category is said to have a signature only if the characteristic pattern is highly representative of all units of that category.
Signature Equipment: Any item of equipment which reveals the type and nature of the unit
or formation to which it belongs.
SIO: Senior Intelligence Officer
Smoke Screen: Cloud of smoke used to mask either friendly or enemy installations or maneuvers.
SNIE: Special National Intelligence Estimate
SOCOM: Special Operations Command.
Source: A person, thing, or activity from which intelligence information is obtained. In clandestine activities, a person (agent), normally a foreign national, in the employ of an intelligence activity for intelligence purposes. In interrogation activities, any person who furnishes intelligence information, either with or without the knowledge that the information is being used for intelligence purposes.
Special Activities: Activities conducted in support of national foreign policy objectives which are planned and executed so that the role of the US Government is not apparent or acknowledged publicly.
Spectral Band: An interval in the electromagnetic spectrum defined by two wavelengths, frequencies, or wave numbers.
Spectrometer: A device to measure the spectral distribution of electromagnetic radiation.
SRBM: Short-Range Ballistic Missile: a ballistic missile with a range less than 1,000 kilometers.
SSCI: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
Stealth: Describes objects that have a severely reduced signature in multiple spectral bands.
Strategic Warning: A warning prior to the initiation of a threatening act.
Strategic Warning Lead Time: That time between the receipt of strategic warning and the be-
ginning of hostilities.
Subversion: Action designed to undermine the military, economic, psychological, or political strength or morale of a regime.
Subversive Activity: Anyone lending aid, comfort, and moral support to individuals, groups
groups or organizations that advocate the overthrow of incumbent governments by force and violence is subversive and is engaged in subversive activity. All willful acts that are intended to be detrimental to the best interests of the government and that do not fall into the categories of treason, sedition, sabotage, or espionage will be placed in the category of subversive activity.
Subversive Political Action: A planned series of activities designed to accomplish political ob-
jectives by influencing, dominating, or displacing individuals or groups who are so placed as to affect the decisions and actions of another government.
Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses: That activity which neutralizes, destroys, or tem-
porarily degrades surface-based enemy air defenses by destructive and/or disruptive means. Also called SEAD.
Surveillance: A systematic observation of aerospace, surface or subsurface areas; persons, or things, by visual, aural, electronic, photographic, or other means.
Synthetic Aperture Radar: Creates a larger apparent antenna than is actually used by consis-
tently adding together (coherently integrating) the radar returns as the host platform moves along a track with respect to the target. A SAR system coupled with advanced MASINT processing techniques provides a high resolution, day/night collection capability. Such a capability can produce a variety of products such as change detection, terrain mapping, underwater obstacle detection, dynamic sensing of targets in clutter and radar cross-section signature measurements.
TAC: Tactical Air Command (now merged into the Air Combat Command).
Tactical Warning: A warning after initiation of a threatening or hostile act based on an evaluation of information from all available sources. In satellite and missile surveillance, a notification to operational command centers that a specific threat event is occurring.
Target Acquisition: The detection, identification, and location of a target in sufficient detail to permit the effective employment of weapons.
Target: A geographical area, complex, or installation planned for capture or destruction by military forces. In intelligence, a country, area, installa-tion, agency, or person against which operations are directed.
Target Analysis: An examination of potential targets to determine military importance, priority of attack, and weapons required to obtain a desired level of damage or casualties.
Target Audience: An individual or group selected for influence or attack by means of
psychological operations.
Targeting: The process of selecting targets and matching the appropriate response to them, taking into account operational requirements and capabilities.
TEL: Transporter, Erector, Launcher.
Telemetry Intelligence: Technical intelligence derived from the intercept, processing, and
analysis of foreign telemetry. Telemetry intelligence is a category of foreign instrumentation signals intelligence. Also called TELINT.
TELINT: Telemetry Intelligence.
Terrain Intelligence: Processed information on the military significance of natural and man-
made characteristics of an area.
Terrain Analysis: The collection, analysis, evaluation, and interpretation of geographic information on the natural and manmade features of the terrain, combined with other relevant factors, to predict the effect of the terrain on military operations.
Thermal Imagery: Imagery produced by sensing and recording the thermal energy emitted or reflected from the objects which are imaged.
Thermal: Information relating to heat or temperatures.
Throw-Weight: The weight above the final launch vehicle stage at the end of booster operation. This would include RVs and, if present, the PBV and any penetration aids.
TIARA: Tactical Intelligence and Related Activities
Traffic Analysis: The cryptologic discipline which develops information from communications about the composition and operation of communications structures and the organizations they serve. The process involves the study of traffic and related materials, and the reconstruction of communications plans, to produce signals intelligence. Useful information such as traffic volume, direction of flow, etc. may be determined even if the encrypted messages cannot be decrypted.
UAV: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.
UGF: Underground Facility.
Ultraspectral: A very high spectral resolution sensor having hundreds of spectral bands, each with resolution of less than 0.1 nanometer.
Ultraviolet Imagery: Imagery produced as a result of sensing ultraviolet radiations reflected
from a given target surface.
UN: United Nations.
Underground Facility: This generic term refers to all types of underground hardened struc-
tures and facilities regardless of their depth (shallow or deep).
Unintentional Radiation Intelligence: Involves the integration and specialized application of
MASINT collection, processing, and exploitation techniques against unintentional radiation sources that are incidental to the RF propagation and operating characteristics of military and civil engines, power sources, weapons systems, electronic systems, machinery, equipment, or instruments. These techniques may be valuable in detecting, tracking, and monitoring a variety of activities of interest.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle: A powered, aerial vehicle that does not carry a human opera-
tor, uses aerodynamic forces to provide vehicle lift, can fly autonomously or be piloted remotely, can be expendable or recoverable, and can carry a lethal or nonlethal payload. Ballistic or semiballistic vehicle.
USDAO: United States Defense Attaché Office.
UV: Ultraviolet.
UW: Unconventional Warfare.
Walk-In: An individual who offers his/her services to an intelligence service without being solicited. Walk-ins are of two categories: the amateur, whom the service generally presumes to have been compromised or observed by the opposition security service; and the professional who is presumably able to make his approach without detection.