Tactics 101: 022 - Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield in Urban Operations Part 2
By Rick Baillergeon and John Sutherland

Published Sunday, December 16, 2007  | 0 comments  | Print  | E-mail

LINK ANALYSIS

Link analysis is used to highlight associations and contacts between people, events, activities and organizations.

Four techniques used in link analysis to cross reference information are: Association Matrix, Activities Matrix, Time Event Charts, and Link Diagrams. These are simple tools, but in this analysis simpler is better! We are simply trying to draw conclusions about an organization. These conclusions can certainly change in the future. However, these current conclusions should be acted upon with operations if the intelligence is reliable.

Association Matrix

The association matrix is a tool to determine the degree of contact between people in the enemy’s organization. In other words, who are the key information nodes within the organization? In the above example, name one has a known relationship with name two and suspected relationships with names three and six…

Activities Matrix

The activities matrix displays key enemy personnel with suspected or known activities they are involved in within the organization. Certainly, this is a way to see who are the ‘big fish’ or high value targets within the enemy. For example, in the above example name one is known to be involved in intelligence operations within the organization and suspected to be involved in propaganda and psychological operations.

Time Event Chart

The time event chart is a tool to compile events and times related to the enemy so trends may appear. A simple chart that can be quickly looked at and then analyzed.

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