Military espionage
Military espionage, or military intelligence (MI), is a military discipline that focuses on information gathering, control, and dissemination about enemy units, terrain, and the weather in an area of operations.
Most armies maintain a military intelligence division, section, or corps. Officers and enlisted men assigned to military intelligence are selected for their analytical abilities and the ability to keep secrets. They receive formal training in these disciplines.
Methods
Strategic intelligence therefore usually proceeds by assessing or anticipating changes in world society. Relevant changes may be scientific, technical, tactical, diplomatic or technical, but these changes are analyzed in combination with known facts about the future, such as geography, demographics and industrial capacities.
Strategic intelligence is usually packaged as simulations or games based on particular scenarios. These games let policy-makers test new types of tactics and forces against the anticipated abilities of possible future enemies.
United States
The U.S. military refers to the military intelligence officer as the J-2, G-2 or S-2, depending on whether his or her assigment is with a joint service staff, a general officer's staff, or the staff of a unit commanded by an officer who ranks below general. In infantry battalions, this post is usually held by a captain, with a first lieutenant as a deputy and a Master Sergeant (pay grade E-8) or Sergeant First Class(pay grade E-7) as staff NCO.
The United States Army trains military intelligence officers at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
Britain
In Britain the MI abbreviation is used by MI5 and MI6, but neither organization is a military intelligence group—the use is a historical vestige relating to their origins. The intelligence group of the British Army is the Intelligence Corps.