Threat possession of critical information can prevent friendly mission accomplishment. Thus, essential secrecy is a necessary prerequisite for effective operations. Indicators are data derived from open sources or from detectable actions that the threat can piece together or interpret to reach conclusions or official estimates concerning friendly intentions, capabilities or activities. They are also activities that result from military operations.
Indicators contribute to the determination of friendly courses of action.
Their identification and interpretation are critical tasks of the threat operations. Indicators can be used in many ways. Profiles are developed by looking at all aspects of friendly operations from the viewpoint of the threat. The friendly profile must include all of those things, which if detected by the threat, could provide him with information concerning our capabilities, vulnerabilities, and intentions. This causes patterns, which the threat looks for so he can predict our intentions.