Technical Intelligence

In a pure military context, Technical Intelligence (TECHINT) is intelligence about weapons and equipment used by the armed forces of foreign nations (often referred to as foreign material).The related term, scientific and technical intelligence, addresses information collected at the strategic (i.e., national) level.

Technical intelligence is intended primarily to allow the armed forces to avoid technological surprise. Knowledge of the characteristics and capabilities of enemy weapons allows nations to develop effective countermeasures for them. Occasionally, armed forces adopt technology developed by foreign nations. The jerrycan of World War II is an example of foreign equipment adopted by the US Army. Technical intelligence should not be confused with intelligence obtained "by technical means". That is a term of art used in discussion of disarmament to mean information gathered by various sorts of cameras, sensors, or other devices. Technical intelligence is the product: "technical intelligence—Intelligence derived from the collection, processing, analysis, and exploitation of data and information pertaining to foreign equipment and materiel for the purposes of preventing technological surprise, assessing foreign scientific and technical capabilities, and developing countermeasures designed to neutralize an adversary's technological advantages."

Scientific and technical intelligence (S&TI) reveals more than the foreign equipment itself. It is

the product resulting from the collection, evaluation, analysis, and interpretation of foreign scientific and technical information that covers:

• a. foreign developments in basic and applied research and in applied engineering techniques;
• b. scientific and technical characteristics, capabilities, and limitations of all foreign military systems, weapons, weapon systems, and materiel; the research and development related thereto; and the production methods employed for their manufacture.

It covers not just the equipment, but the process by which it was developed and produced, the production rate of the country or organization making it, and possibly the economic and other priorities given to the project. Given that scientific and technical information is an important part of a nation's competitive position in world markets, S&TI blurs into economic intelligence, which is defined by the U.S. government as "government-sponsored or coordinated intelligence activity designed to unlawfully and covertly obtain classified data and/or sensitive policy or proprietary information from a U.S. Government agency or company, potentially having the effect of enhancing a foreign country's economic competitiveness and damaging U.S. economic security." Convicted CIA spy Aldrich Ames collected $4.6 million for selling classified information, on CIA activities, to the USSR and Russia. In contrast to the sale of government information, "Ronald Hoffman, a project manager for a company called Science Applications, Inc., made $750,000 by selling complex software programs that were developed under secret contract for the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). The CONTAM software tracks the plumes that rockets and missiles leave in their wake and, therefore, has both military and civilian applications. Hoffman sold his wares to Japanese multinationals-Nissan Motor Company, Mitsubishi Electric, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries - that wanted the information for civilian aerospace programs. He was arrested in 1992." Porteous identifies two kinds of economic intelligence that are distinct from S&TI:

1. trade negotiation intelligence
2. macro-economic intelligence

See also: list of intelligence gathering disciplines