Case Studies

CIAT: Combat Intelligence Augmentation Teams

Capabilities

Intelligence Operations, SIGINT, All-Source, HUMINT, Collection Management

Overview

CIAT is part of the overall intelligence program designed to support U.S. Forces in Afghanistan. The program was designed to provide a multi-faceted Intelligence Operations Support program consisting of (but not limited to) All-Source Intelligence Analysts, Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Analysts, Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) Analysts, Intelligence Requirements Collection Managers Special Advisors, Intelligence Analysts, Planners, Targeting Support, Counterintelligence (CI) Support, Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Collection and Debriefing Support, Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) Support, Screener Support, Multi-Media Exploitation Support, Tactical & Operational Intelligence Analysis, Intelligence Information Management, Requirements Collection Managers, and Special Security personnel. These units form teams and act independently to provide Counterintelligence support, Collection Requirements Management, analytic and target support, and other intelligence-related support services to augment assigned military units, and other intelligence staffs and organizations.

Challenge

CIAT employs approximately 350 expert intelligence analysts who traditionally spend one year in theater supporting combat operations. Recruiting and retaining 350 analysts alone is challenging. Given the nature of the work, CIAT requires approximately 300 new analysts each year to replace outgoing staff.

Solution

While we do leverage traditional candidate-sourcing tools to identify a portion of our candidates, our greatest success is through our extended networks within the conventional and SOF intelligence community. But beyond simply accessing candidates, we have found that our values-based, people-first culture, benefits, and programs have activated a self-sustaining recruiting cycle, as our employees bring in their own networks of like-minded, highly qualified analysts. The analytic team is a strategic resource that, if treated with respect and professionalism, becomes a force multiplier in meeting the larger mission requirements.

We have developed a mature, streamlined process for recruiting, selecting, pre-screening, conducting pre-deployment training, and clearing our analysts for deployment into theater.  We have a 100% success rate in clearing our analysts through CRC at Fort Bliss and we fully understand and have mastered the ITAR and export license process. We’ve also established a robust package of personnel care programs, medical coverage (for both the analyst and their trailing dependents), incentives, benefits, and career planning services to ensure our analysts can exclusively focus on their mission.  This comprehensive program is scalable and sufficiently robust to meet the USSOCOM’s personnel requirements.

Results

We have successfully grown from 3 to over 50 in 8 months with 30% growth Q/Q. Of note, given our corporate culture and focus on whole-person employment, we enjoy almost 50% (and growing) referral-based recruiting. We have developed a self-sustaining recruiting cycle that reduces the overhead and expense of recruiting while ensuring high quality candidates due to the inherent peer review process in place.

Contact BTS to explore solutions for your intelligence or defense challenges.