Unlike some branches of the Army which have multiple Areas of Concentration (AOC) for officers, the Military Intelligence Corps requires all its officers to begin their careers in the same AOC: 35D, All-Source Intelligence. (AOC is the officers’ equivalent of the enlisted Soldier’s MOS.)
As technology widens the scope and capabilities of the Army’s Military Intelligence (MI) assets, it also means that MI must be familiar with a broad array of MI disciplines in order to plan, collect, analyze, and create intelligence products that are actionable by commanders, be it at the strategic, operational, or tactical level. All-source intelligence officers have a firm comprehension of what his commander’s intelligence requirements are, know how to allocate resources to collect all available raw data, and have the ability to analyze the intelligence in a way that will yield data that supports the mission of the maneuver commander.
MI officers who have logged three to six years of active commissioned service take the MI Officer Career Course, designed to produce officers who not only serve as leaders in the MI Corps, but also are highly skilled across the various intelligence disciplines. But some officers will receive advance training in a highly specialized AOC based upon their assignments. These AOCs, all of which have fairly self-explanatory descriptors, include Strategic Intelligence (35B), Imagery Intelligence (35C), Counterintelligence (35E), Human Intelligence (35F), and Signals Intelligence/Electronic Warfare (35G).
Related Military Intelligence Corps Items