Section II will consider the possible procedures for obtaining information, i.e., for its collection, including reports from collecting agencies.
Section III will consider the capabilities of the enemy as to counter-intelligence measures.
Section IV will compare the various procedures open for the collection of information and for reports thereof.
Section V will include a decision as to the essential elements of information desired. The decision will be in sufficient detail to serve as a general plan (or a basis therefor), to be developed into a detailed plan for obtaining information and for converting it into intelligence.
A detailed intelligence plan will include appropriate information and assumptions. It will state the general plan for obtaining intelligence. This statement will include the essential elements of information desired. The plan will include appropriate tasks for information-collecting agencies, with times and destinations for reports of information. The task for each collecting agency will be based on the general plan (above); such task will also be synchronized with the projected operations prescribed for such agency in current Operation Orders (Chapter VIII). The agency's inherent capabilities—its limitations as well as its powers—will be given due consideration. Requests to be made on collecting agencies not under the commander's control will be noted in the information (as to own forces) given in the plan (see above).
Logistics arrangements will include, for example, provisions for handling prisoners of war, the disposition of captured documents and other materials, and the supply of maps, charts, and photographs. Counter intelligence measures will be specified where applicable. These include such matters as censorship, press relations, camouflage, and propaganda. Finally, the plan will include provision for the rendition of routine and special reports, for special charts (or maps) accompanying or pertinent to such reports, and for any intelligence conferences.
The essential elements of information desired are frequently stated in question form. Each question deals with an enemy course of action or with one or more of the enemy operations pertaining to such a course ([page 161]).
The tasks assigned to collecting agencies, or the requests made on collecting agencies not under the commander's control, will call for information (negative, if desired, as well as positive) as to specific indications of the enemy's action—past, present, or intended—and of the characteristics of the theater as related thereto. The indications to be sought for and reported are carefully determined by the commander in expectation that information obtained as to such matters will enable him to draw conclusions which will answer the questions posed by the essential elements of information.
For example, essential elements of information, with corresponding indications, may be as follows:
| Essential Elements | Indications |
| 1. Will the enemy patrol the trade route from A to B? | a. Presence or absence of enemy forces (number and types of vessels) between meridians—and—, as far north as—and as far south as—. |
| b. Times enemy forces observed in area noted. | |
| c. Apparent activity of enemy forces so noted. | |
| 2. Will the enemy cover focal points M and N? | a. Presence or absence of enemy forces (numbers and types of vessels) in (a specified area or areas). |
| b. Times enemy forces observed in areas noted in a, above. | |
| c. Apparent activity of enemy so noted. | |
| d. Has M or N been prepared as a naval base; an air base for seaplanes, for land planes? Is M or N readily accessible to enemy battleships? What are the characteristics of the available entrances to sheltered anchorages? (Etc.) |