Rick Kozak / Staff Collin Agee is a former U.S. Army intelligence officer and current director for ISR Integration, Army G-2.

Soldiers on the battlefield are better off today than they were two years ago because they are now regarded and used as a critical piece in the intelligence puzzle.

“The [U.S.] Army has recognized the importance of intelligence in this fight and intel has enjoyed a very healthy growth because of it,” former U.S. Army intelligence officer Collin Agee said at the 6th Annual C4ISR Journal Integration Conference, New Tools for War in Real Time, in Arlington, Va.

Agee, who is now the Army’s director for ISR Integration, Army G-2, offered a concise review of the complexities involved with not only integrating technology with ground operations and individual soldiers, but how the Army’s transformation to a modular organization has significantly improved intelligence gathering.

“At the brigade level we used to have eight intel people. Now we have 21, and by fiscal 2011 there will be 39 with the addition of an integration and analysis platoon,” Agee said. “The folks in the field say that’s what they need.”

Joint intelligence operations centers have been stood up at all combatant command centers, and new simulations are being developed that will help soldiers ramp up their situational awareness before they even get on a plane to the combat zone.

“What we’ve done is we’ve redefined our customer. It’s down to the platoon level,” said Agee, who noted that the only realistic intelligence capability used to be at the division level. With every soldier a sensor, the flow of information that used to come from the top now springs up from the ground where the intelligence is gathered on the streets and alleyways of Iraq’s towns and villages.,

“We realized the fight was down on the ground and now the soldier knows that what he sees is important,” Agee said.

The latest version of an Army game, ES3, was posted on the Internet about a month ago. Soldiers with AKO accounts can download it and “play” the game, which takes them through realistic intelligence gathering scenarios in Iraq.

In some scenes there are anti-U.S. slogans spray painted in Arabic on walls and Arabic phrases are used in situations where soldiers are interacting with the Iraqi population.

Agee’s office is also exploring the possibility of a virtual right-seat-ride training tool to help raise a soldier’s situational awareness before arriving in theater. The tool, which is under consideration now, could include a 360-degree video.

“Most casualties are when people are brand new because they’re not attuned to their environment. This way they can do it virtually by going on a Web site,” he said.

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