Page:United States Army Field Manual 3-13 Information Operations.djvu/9

 The G-7 has coordinating staff responsibility for IO. He does this by means of the G-7 section and IO cell. Placing responsibility for synchronizing the activities of the IO elements and related activities on one special staff officer helps commanders mass their effects to gain and maintain information superiority. Chapter 1 discusses the role of the G-7 and IO cell. In addition, it describes the information environment (where Army forces conduct IO), information superiority (the object of IO), and the categories of IO (offensive IO and defensive IO). It also discusses how IO applies across the spectrum of conflict and its relationship to intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. The chapter concludes with IO training considerations.

INFORMATION ENVIRONMENT

1-1. The information environment is the aggregate of individuals, organizations, or systems that collect, process, or disseminate information; also included is the information itself (JP 3-13). It includes—

• The worldwide interconnection of communications networks. • Command and control (C2) systems of friendly and adversary forces and other organizations. • Friendly, adversary, and other personnel who make decisions and handle information.

Climate, terrain, and weapons effects (such as electromagnetic pulse or blackout) affect the information environment but are not part of it. Army forces increasingly rely on the unrestricted use of the information environment to conduct (plan, prepare, execute, and assess) full spectrum operations.

1-2. The information environment is one of the components of battlespace (see FM 3-0). A commander’s area of interest now includes part of the information environment. The part of the information environment within a commander’s battlespace encompasses information activities that affect an operation. To visualize it, commanders consider the dimensions of the entire information environment. They seek to understand how activity in the information environment may affect their mission. Commanders determine information activities that affect their operations and C2 systems, and those they can influence. Activities in the information environment that commanders cannot influence may force them to assume or act to mitigate risk. 1-3. The requirement for commanders to conduct reachback operations has expanded the portion of the information environment within a commander’s area of interest. It now includes tactical to strategic C2 systems connected through the Global Information Grid (GIG). Commanders depend on support by elements of the GIG they do not control. They therefore rely on strategic defensive IO to ensure necessary connectivity. 1-4. Many significant actors in the information environment can affect the strategic, operational, and tactical direction of military operations—perhaps before they begin. Examples of these actors include—

• Foreign governments.