ADP 3-13 Information (2023. 11. 27.)

Description

Foreword

Information is central to everything we do—it is the basis of intelligence, a fundamental element of command and control, and the foundation for communicating thoughts, opinions, and ideas. As a dynamic of combat power, Army forces fight for, defend, and fight with information to create and exploit information advantages—the use, protection, and exploitation of information to achieve objectives more effectively than enemies and adversaries do.

Advancements in information technologies and increased global connectivity continue to shape how we interact with each other and how forces fight. These advancements accelerate and expand the ability of joint and Army forces to collect, process, analyze, store, and communicate information at a scale previously unimaginable. Our primary adversaries now have many of the same capabilities to employ or exploit information the same as the United States does, and they are willing to employ them during competition, crisis, and conflict. In the same way other doctrine changes as the security environment changes, so must our doctrine on the use, protection, and exploitation of information.

ADP 3-13, Information, is the Army’s first publication dedicated to information. It provides a framework for creating and exploiting information advantages during the conduct of operations and at home station. It represents an evolution in how Army forces think about the military uses of data and information, emphasizing that everything Army forces do, to include the information and images it creates, generates effects that contribute to or hinder achieving objectives. As such, creating and exploiting information advantages is the business of all commanders, leaders, and Soldiers.

ADP 3-13 operationalizes the two big ideas inherent in multidomain operations—combined arms and positions of relative human, information, and physical advantage. We no longer regard information as a separate consideration or the sole purview of technical specialists. Instead, we view information as a resource that is integrated into operations with all available capabilities in a combined arms approach to enable command and control; protect data, information, and networks; inform audiences; influence threats and foreign relevant actors; and attack the threat’s ability to exercise command and control.

Army leaders are accustomed to creating and exploiting relative advantages through a combined arms approach that traditionally focuses on the human and physical dimensions of an operational environment. ADP 3-13 acknowledges that advantages in the information dimension complement and reinforce advantages in the human and physical dimensions. The advantages do not necessarily have to be great: small advantages exploited quickly help commanders gain and maintain the operational initiative. Combining these advantages slows threat decision making, increases its level of uncertainty, and allows Army forces to dictate the tempo of operations.

ADP 3-13 provides the intellectual underpinnings that describe how Army forces will gain, protect, and exploit information advantages. But doctrine is only the beginning. The hard work begins when we incorporate these ideas into leader development, education, and training. As leaders, it is our obligation to study, understand, and implement the doctrine in ADP 3-13.

MILFORD H. BEAGLE, JR.
LIEUTENANT GENERAL, USA
COMMANDING

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Preface

ADP 3-13 serves as the Army’s foundational doctrine for information. It provides the fundamental principles for considering how Army forces use, protect, and attack data and information to achieve objectives while affecting the threat’s (adversary or enemy) ability to do the same. As a keystone publication, ADP 3-13 links the Army’s applications of information to all warfighting functions and methods of warfare.

ADP 3-13 is applicable to all members of the profession of arms: leaders, Soldiers, and Army Civilian professionals. It applies to Army forces during the conduct of operations as well as to Army forces performing duties at home station. This publication provides the foundation for training and Army education system curricula and future capabilities development across doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education, personnel, facilities, and policy (known as DOTMLPF-P).

To comprehend the doctrine contained in ADP 3-13, readers must understand the fundamentals of multidomain operations described in ADP 3-0 and detailed in FM 3-0. They must understand the fundamentals of each warfighting function addressed in ADP 2-0, ADP 3-19, ADP 3-37, ADP 3-90, ADP 4-0, and ADP 6-0. Readers should also be familiar with applicable joint and multinational doctrine concerning information, to include information in joint operations described in JP 3-04 and allied information doctrine described in Allied Joint Publication (AJP)-10.1.

Commanders, staffs, and subordinates ensure their decisions and actions comply with applicable United States, international, and, in some cases, host-nation laws and regulations when applying this doctrine. Commanders at all levels ensure their Soldiers operate in accordance with the law of armed conflict and the rules of engagement as discussed in FM 6-27. They also adhere to the Army ethic described in ADP 6-22.

This publication contains copyright material.

ADP 3-13 uses joint terms where applicable. Selected joint and Army terms and definitions appear in both the glossary and text. ADP 3-13 is the proponent publication (the authority) for some terms. When first defined in the text, ADP 3-13 proponent terms appear in bold italics, and definitions are bolded. For other definitions shown in the text, the term is italicized, and the number of the proponent publication follows the definition. The glossary marks ADP 3-13 proponent terms with an asterisk (*).

The proponent of ADP 3-13 is the United States Army Combined Arms Center. The preparing agency is the Combined Arms Doctrine Directorate, United States Army Combined Arms Center.