The availability of information has drastically increased in the Information Age increasing the risk of information overload. Information overload reduces a U.S. Army staff's ability to operationalize intelligence and a commander's capacity to make decisions. The amount of data and information that intelligence analysts must process, exploit, and disseminate has drastically increased over the past 30 years. The primary research question of this thesis is: how does information overload impact the current operations element within a BCT? The U.S. Army Intelligence Community (IC) must find ways to mitigate information overload and prevent intelligence analysts from sharing poorly analyzed data that only degrades the decision-making process. This thesis analyzed five brigades across four case studies including; Operation Desert Storm, Operation Anaconda, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Rock Move. The results of the study suggest that the information load increased following force modernization in the form of the modular brigade concept and that in the case of Operation Rock Move, information overload was present within the BCT current operations element.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. The opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the student-authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College or any other governmental agency. (References to these studies should include the foregoing statement.)