Reference no: EM133478455

Geospatial intelligence collection and analysis can have a wide range of efficient and proper uses. One of the most obvious ones is its applicability to supporting military efforts. This is done through the Mission Planning stages of the Military Decision-Making Process (MDMP). The simplest way to break down the MDMP process is as follows: 1) identify the mission or problem, 2) offer up plans of action to accomplish the mission or solve the problem, 3) select the best option, 4) write up an order to subordinates, 5) review the efficacy of selected action and mission accomplishment (US Army Combined Arms Center 2015, 7).

The mission planning part does not fit neatly into the MDMP, regardless, there is still a need for the intelligence provided by geospatial intelligence. For example, in the case of mission planning for the Osama Bin Laden Compound Raid in 2012, geospatial intelligence was gathered to understand the environment the raid would be conducted in. Is the compound in an urban or rural setting? Is a raid even a proper solution to best eliminate the target? How many people are in the compound? What is it used for? Is there heavy traffic inside and around the target? How is the weather supposed to be on the date selected? These are questions that overhead reconnaissance can help in solving and the current and fastest way this can be done is through the implementation of satellites to take pictures of the area.