This page refers to the military acronym.

ISTAR stands for Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and Reconnaissance. In its macroscopic sense, ISTAR is a practice that links several battlefield functions together to assist a combat force in employing its sensors and managing the information they gather. Military intelligence (abbreviated MI, int [Commonwealth], or intel [U.S.]), is a military discipline that focuses on information gathering, analysis, and dissemination about enemy units, terrain, and the weather in an area of operations. ... Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior. ... Target acquisition provides detailed information about enemy forces and locates them with sufficient accuracy to permit continued monitoring or target designation and engagement. ... Mixed reconnaissance patrol of the Polish Home Army and the Soviet Red Army during Operation Tempest, 1944 Reconnaissance is the military term for the active gathering of information about an enemy, or other conditions, by physical observation. ...

Information is collected on the battlefield through systematic observation by deployed soldiers and a variety of electronic sensors. Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance are methods of obtaining this information. The information is then passed to intelligence personnel for analysis, and then to the commander and his staff for the formulation of battle plans. Intelligence is processed information that is relevant and contributes to an understanding of the ground, and of enemy dispositions and intents. Information is the result of processing, manipulating and organizing data in a way that adds to the knowledge of the person receiving it. ... Battlefield may refer to: the location of a battle, the Battlefield televised documentary series, shown on the Discovery Channel, which explores battles of World War 2, the Battlefield Vietnam televised documentary series, shown on the Military Channel, which gives detail explanations of Vietnam War, (1945-1975), battles. ... Military intelligence (abbreviated MI, int. ...

ISTAR is the process of integrating the intelligence process with surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance tasks in order to improve a commander’s situational awareness and consequently their decision making. The inclusion of the "I" is important as it recognizes the importance of taking the information from all of the sensors and processing it into useful knowledge.

ISTAR can also refer to:

• a unit or sub unit with ISTAR as a task (eg: an ISTAR Squadron)
• equipment required to support the task

Variations of ISTAR

There are several variations on the "ISTAR" acronym. Some variations reflect specific emphasis on certain aspects of ISTAR.

STAR (Surveillance, Target Acquisition, and Reconnaissance)

A term used when emphasis is to be placed on the sensing component of ISTAR.

RSTA (Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target Acquisition)

A term used by the US Army in place of STAR or ISTAR. Also a term used to identify certain US Army units: for instance, 3rd Squadron, 124th RSTA. These units serve a similar role to the belowmentioned US Marine Corps STA platoons, but on a larger scale. Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Target Acquisition or RSTA, is a type of unit in the United States Army. ... Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Target Acquisition or RSTA, is a type of unit in the United States Army. ...

STA (Surveillance and Target Acquisition)

Used to designate one of the following:

• A US Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) – specifically an STA sniper (USMC))
• The role of a unit or equipment (Artillery STA)
• A doctrine similar to ISTAR.

A Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) is a job classification in use in the United States Army and Marine Corps. ... Surveillance and Target Acquisition or S.T.A, (pronounced stay) snipers were United States Marine Corps units used primarily for information-gathering. ... Artillery Surveillance and Target Acquisition is a military role assigned to units and/or their equipment. ...

ISTAR Units and Formations

• RSTA (U.S. Army)
• Artillery STA
• STA sniper (USMC)
• Intelligence batallion (Norwegian Army)
• Jegerkompaniet (Norwegian Army)

Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Target Acquisition or RSTA, is a type of unit in the United States Army. ... Artillery Surveillance and Target Acquisition is a military role assigned to units and/or their equipment. ... Surveillance and Target Acquisition or S.T.A, (pronounced stay) snipers were United States Marine Corps units used primarily for information-gathering. ... Jegerkompaniet / ISTAR is the Norwegian Armys northern-most unit. ...

See also

• C⁴ISTAR, a broader concept that also includes Command, Control, Communications and Computers.

C4ISTAR is an acronym used to represent the following group of related military functions that enable the coordination of operations: Command Control Communications Computers Intelligence Surveillance Target Acquisition Reconnaissance Many subsets of these elements are used, or have been used in the past, as acronyms. ...

External links

• Reconnaissance and Surveillance Operations—Canadian Land Forces manual about armoured reconnaissance (PDF)
• INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, and RECONNAISSANCE (ISR) PROGRAMS - ACSC Research Topic
• Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance on APA