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MASINT will help us view another dimension of the 21st century battlefield. Because of the complex, cluttered nature of that battlefield, we need the ability to see past the obvious and understand the true nature of threats. MASINT will directly improve the knowledge, speed and power of our combat forces on tomorrow's battlefield
-Major General John D. Thomas, Jr. (US Army, Retired)
The words "measurement and signatures intelligence" and "MASINT" entered the Army's lexicon in the early 1970s as a means of describing intelligence operations and sources other than the more traditional signals intelligence (SIGINT), human intelligence (HUMINT), and imagery intelligence (IMINT). This 11 new" source actually represented innovative methods employed to support the oldest and most basic form of intelligence-the process of trying to identify an object or event. One hundred years ago, the "measurement" was often a scout's view of an event occurring in front of his unit. The "signature" identification was the process occurring in his head in which he compared the observed event to his personal "database" or memory of similar events and then identified the activity. Completing this simplistic scenario, he reported the information to a commander or other person who could use it. He detected, processed, identified, and reported. Now and in the future, the Military Intelligence (MI) soldier will take advantage of sources that will provide full-spectrum intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) to the warfighter. They include
* Acoustic.
* Magnetic.
* Seismic.
* Nuclear, biological, and chemical.
* Radar.
* Multi-, hyper-, and ultra-spectral.
* Electro-optic (EO).
* Radio energy.
* Olfactory, and other signatures.
MASINT complements the more traditional forms of Army Intelligence by accomplishing the base work of identification, characterization, and location of battlespace entities.
As we move farther into the 21st century, MI faces complexities that will drive our methods and technology in new directions, many of which we can only partially envision today. One of those is the wide availability and dispersion of crucial enabling technologies to every political and military entity in the world. It will become harder to develop intelligence against these forces with traditional methods. MASINT looks at every intelligence indicator with new eyes and makes available new indicators as well. It measures and identifies battlespace entities via multiple means...