The 1st Intelligence Battalion is an

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (Austral ...

unit responsible for collecting and analysing

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can b ...

. It was formed in 1999, and is currently part of the 6th Brigade.

History

Formation

The 1st Intelligence Battalion was established in 1999. The Australian Army's website states that the unit "traces its history from

Australian Intelligence Corps The Australian Intelligence Corps (AUSTINT) is a corps within the Australian Army. It was formed on 6 December 1907 and provides intelligence personnel in every formation headquarters in the Army.Dennis (et al) 2008, p. 65. , the corps consisted ...

units and organisations formed prior to the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, with a legacy to 1 Division and 2 Division Intelligence Companies".

Recent developments

On 1 March 2010 the battalion became part of the 6th Brigade when it was re-raised to command the Army's command support and intelligence, surveillance and target acquisition units. In 2014 the

1st Topographic Survey Squadron The 1st Topographic Survey Squadron is a unit of the Australian Army. It provides mapping support the Army. The squadron was originally part of the Royal Australian Survey Corps which reintegrated with Royal Australian Engineers The Royal Austr ...

, formed as a unit of the

Royal Australian Survey Corps The Royal Australian Survey Corps (RA Svy) was a Corps of the Australian Army, formed on 1 July 1915 and disbanded on 1 July 1996. As one of the principal military survey units in Australia, the role of the Royal Australian Survey Corps was to pro ...

, was transferred into the battalion from the 6th Engineer Support Regiment. Teams and individual personnel from the 1st Intelligence Battalion have been deployed in support of all

Australian Defence Force The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is the military organisation responsible for the defence of the Commonwealth of Australia and its national interests. It consists of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Australian Army, Royal Australian Air Forc ...

deployments since the unit was established. In April 2015 the Army's in-house newspaper reported that "for the first time since being raised the ... battalion had no formed bodies on deployment". Until 2008 the 1st Intelligence Battalion comprised only members of the Australian Intelligence Corps. Since that time, members of other corps of the Army as well as personnel from the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...

and

Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

have been posted to the battalion to serve as human intelligence operators or interrogators. The 1st Intelligence Battalion maintains teams of specialists on short notice to deploy from the unit's base at

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

. As of 2014, the unit's roles included collecting and analysing

human intelligence Human intelligence is the intellectual capability of humans, which is marked by complex cognitive feats and high levels of motivation and self-awareness. High intelligence is associated with better outcomes in life. Through intelligence, humans ...

psychological warfare Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), have been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations (MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and Mi ...

and

information operations Information Operations is a category of direct and indirect support operations for the United States Military. By definition in Joint Publication 3-13, "IO are described as the integrated employment of electronic warfare (EW), computer network ...

. In addition, it was capable of conducting

topographical surveys Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

and collecting and making use of

geospatial intelligence In the United States, geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) is intelligence about the human activity on earth derived from the exploitation and analysis of imagery, signals, or signatures with geospatial information. GEOINT describes, assesses, and vis ...

. At this time the 1st Intelligence Battalion included an All Source Cell which aimed to combine and analyse different sources of intelligence, as well as capabilities to exploit intelligence.

References

{{reflist Military units and formations established in 1999 Battalions of Australia Military intelligence units and formations 1999 establishments in Australia

History

Formation

Recent developments

See also

References