CHAPTER 1: OPFOR Structure and Task Organization Principles

1-11 RECONNAISSANCE TASK ORGANIZATION.

    The OPFOR considers reconnaissance the most important element of combat support. All commanders and staffs organize reconnaissance to acquire information about the BLUFOR's weapons; force disposition and intentions; and terrain and weather in the area of impending combat. This information is crucial to the planning process for command and control systems.

     a. Principles. The OPFOR uses the following principles to guide its reconnaissance activities: focus, continuity; aggressiveness; timeliness; camouflage, concealment, and deception; accuracy; and reliability. These overlapping concepts require reconnaissance units to integrate all these principles.

b. Characteristics.

• Flexibility. The OPFOR must be able to switch priorities from one target to another without degrading the overall mission.

• Sustainability. It must be able to sustain itself wherever it is operating, without relying on others for transport, subsistence, and so on.

• Security. A reconnaissance asset should be as secure as possible during operations. This means operating in a manner that conceals activities and areas of interest at all times. Reconnaissance activity should not reveal the parent unit's plan of action. The OPFOR does not expect to conceal its reconnaissance activities entirely, but will attempt to mask the scale, specific objectives, and area of concentration of main reconnaissance efforts.

• Communications. Reconnaissance elements must have reliable communications. An intelligence organization may successfully gather all necessary information but if it cannot transmit this information to the user (such as the commander or an artillery unit), the entire effort is useless.

• Reserves. All levels should maintain a reconnaissance reserve to take on unforeseen tasks or redeem failure on key missions.

     c. Priorities. Reconnaissance activities must support the information requirements of the commander. Therefore, priorities vary at different levels of command:

          (1) Army Group. The army group conducts reconnaissance to locate the most critical BLUFOR targets including the following:

• Precision weapons.

• NBC systems.

• Air defenses.

• Intelligence-gathering assets.

• Higher headquarters and communications centers.

• General support artillery groups.

• Operational-strategic groupings and their movements.

(2) Army or Corps. The army or corps repeats these priorities and also seeks the following:

• Contents of airfields and army aviation forward operating bases.

• Precision weapons and NBC systems.

• Major concentration areas of reserves.

• Unit boundaries.

• Location and extent of defended areas.

• The BLUFOR's combat capabilities and intentions.

(3) Division. Divisions repeat army priorities and add local threats including the following:

• Location of direct support artillery and mortars and attack helicopters.

• Disposition of tanks and medium- and long-range antitank systems.

• Deployment of air defense weapons.

• Location of brigade and battalion command posts.

• Nature and extent of natural and manmade obstacles.

• Locations of field defenses.

     d. Operational Assets. Operational reconnaissance units support army-group, army, and corps commanders. Operational reconnaissance elements usually collect information throughout the entire depth of the BLUFOR's corps area. See Figure 1-3 for a graphic depiction of the effective ranges of various reconnaissance measures available to an army group. Armies and corps conduct operational reconnaissance using their own resources, plus those of their subordinate divisions and brigades.

           (1) Army or Corps. At the mechanized- or tank- army or corps level, the Chief of Reconnaissance (COR) heads the reconnaissance department (intelligence staff). This department coordinates operational reconnaissance in the same manner as the army group's reconnaissance directorate described above.

          (2) Forward Detachments. Armies, division, and even brigades employ forward detachments as the situation dictates. Maneuver forces configured as forward detachments have reconnaissance as one of their missions. These detachments transmit information on the size, type, and disposition of BLUFOR forces, BLUFOR obstacles, route conditions, and river crossing sites.

          (3) Special-Purpose Forces. An army may have a SPF battalion; it can deploy from 10 to 15 teams.

          (4) UAVs. At army level, drones and RPVs also serve as aerial reconnaissance assets. An army may have a drone squadron. Drones normally fly at low altitude and subsonic speeds. RPVs and drones fly a set course.

          (5) Electronic Assets. An army normally has a signals reconnaissance battalion. Also known as a radio and radar intercept and DF battalion. Some armies have a full signals reconnaissance brigade.

          (6) Artillery Assets. An army-level artillery brigade has an organic artillery reconnaissance battalion or battery. An army's rocket launcher brigade also has an artillery reconnaissance battery. Surface-to-surface missile units do not have reconnaissance assets, but rely on external intelligence support.

Figure 1-3. Effective ranges of reconnaissance means.

     e. Ground Forces Tactical Reconnaissance. Reconnaissance is a combined arms responsibility. Thus, ordinary mechanized infantry and tank units perform two functions; they perform their own close reconnaissance tasks with organic resources, and they provide reconnaissance detachments of up to reinforced battalion strength. Leading units may also conduct reconnaissance by combat, attacking the BLUFOR to determine his strength and disposition.

          (1) Disposition. Special brigade reconnaissance troops carry out reconnaissance, operating from up to 25 to 30 kilometers forward of the OPFOR line of contact (or even more in faster-developing NBC operations). They might operate out to a maximum distance of 50 kilometers. Division-level reconnaissance troops also operate out to approximately 50 kilometers. The commander might insert the airborne qualified long-range reconnaissance company up to 100 kilometers deep without its vehicles. Task-oriented reconnaissance groups, reinforced by engineer and NBC reconnaissance and, often, by mechanized infantry and tank elements, also move forward. Generally, these groups endeavor to avoid combat in fulfilling their tasks, although they may direct artillery fire or air strikes.

          (2) Missions:

• Locating, identifying, and reporting BLUFOR NBC delivery means, headquarters, communications centers, troop concentrations, and movements of BLUFOR units.

• Determining the strength and dispositions of the BLUFOR's defenses and locating his boundaries.

• Providing topographical information concerning routes to, or bypasses around, BLUFOR positions as well as concerning lateral routes.

• Identifying the extent and depth of minefields and the types of mine employed (assessing obstacles and possible crossing points).

• Establishing the extent of zones of contamination.

• Identifying potential communications facilities and other sites for use by their own forces.