The fog of war is the uncertainty in situational awareness experienced by participants in military operations. The term seeks to capture the uncertainty regarding one's own capability, adversary capability, and adversary intent during an engagement, operation, or campaign. Military forces try to reduce the fog of war through military intelligence and friendly force tracking systems.
A block wargame, Richard III by Columbia Games, showing the fog of war in play: the red player can see the identity of his own pieces, but not those of the white player.
Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a range of sources, directed towards the commanders' mission requirements or responding to questions as part of operational or campaign planning. To provide an analysis, the commander's information requirements are first identified, which are then incorporated into intelligence collection, analysis, and dissemination.
A platoon commander of the 1st Marine Logistics Group, with the battalion interpreter, gather intelligence from local Afghans during a combat logistics patrol to the area, May 9, 2010.