Technical Intelligence (TECHINT) is intelligence about weapons and equipment used by the armed forces of foreign nations. Technical intelligence is intended primarily to allow the armed forces to avoid technological surprise. Knowledge of the characteristics and capabilities of enemy weapons allows nations to develop effective countermeasures for them. Occasionally, armed forces adopt technology developed by foreign nations. The Jerry or Blitz can of World War II is an example of foreign technology adopted by the US Army.

The technical intelligence process

The technical intelligence process consists of:

• Collection of materiel and related documents
• Testing and Analysis
• Production of finished intelligence

The collection phase typically begins when a soldier finds something on a battlefield. Materiel can also be obtained through commercial channels. Clandestine operations have been mounted to obtain enemy materiel. Probably the most expensive and most ambitious was construction of Hughes Glomar Explorer to obtain the wreckage of Soviet submarine that sunk in the Pacific.

The analysis phase includes various types of technical and operational tests. The services have well developed procedures for testing various types of materiel.

The production of technical intelligence includes preparation of a variety of reports and documents. For example, during World War II the Army prepared technical manuals on certain items of enemy equipment, included information about enemy equipment in catalogs of enemy equipment and in handbooks about foreign forces, and published technical intelligence in various reports.

Note

Technical intelligence should not be confused with intelligence obtained "by technical means." That is a term of art used in discussion of disarmament to mean information gathered by various sorts of sensors in space, in vehicles, or in fixed locations.

see list of intelligence gathering disciplines

See related

Roy Varner and Wayne Collier. A Matter of Risk: the Incredible Inside Story of the CIA's Hughes Glomar Explorer Mission to Raise a Russian Submarine. (New York: Random House, 1978)

US Army Technical Manual TM E9-369A. German 88-mm Antiaircraft Gun Materiel. 1943.

US Army Technical Manual TM E9-803. German Volkswagen. 1944.

US Army Technical Manual TM E11-227A. Signal Communications Directory, Japanese Radio Communication Equipment. 1944

US Army Technical Manual TM E30-420. Handbook of Italian Military Forces. 1943.

External links

• U.S. Army Field Manual FM 34-54, Technical Intelligence (1998) (https://w4.pica.army.mil/eod/references/fm34_54.htm)
• U.S. Army Technical Intelligence Chronology (http://www.lib.uidaho.edu/technical/tech-int.html)