Intelligence Collection Management - Collection Disciplines

Collection Disciplines

See also: List of intelligence gathering disciplines

See individual articles on major collection disciplines, some of which are more postprocessing of raw data than collection, are:

• Human Intelligence (HUMINT)
• Imagery intelligence (IMINT)
• Signals intelligence (SIGINT)
• Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT)
• Technical Intelligence (TECHINT)
• Open Source Intelligence (OSINT)

In order to break down the collection stovepipes it is necessary to increase responsibility at the highest level. If the various types of collection are not managed more coherently across the board, current problems will compound and efforts to achieve collection synergy and to improve all-source analysis will erode further.

Unique, and often highly sensitive, technologies need to be developed to keep a first-rate intelligence capability in a major power. Even small nations may have unique strengths.

At the same time, the stovepipe mentality of the IC has also led to a situation in which there is duplication and increased costs that could easily be avoided. Commonality in items now as basic as data processing remains the exception rather than the rule.