Soldiers assigned to the 203rd Military Intelligence Battalion are training to convert captured enemy materiel into usable intelligence during Northern Strike 26-2, Aug. 3-15, at Camp Grayling, Michigan.

Operating a captured materiel exploitation center, or CMEC, the battalion gathers, secures, catalogs, analyzes, and reports on simulated enemy equipment recovered across the training area. The work supports commanders’ priority intelligence needs by turning communications equipment, computers, digital media, unmanned systems, weapons, and other recovered materiel into actionable assessments.

“Our mission here is secondary exploitation of captured materiel,” said Sgt. Devon Avery, a 35F all-source intelligence analyst assigned to the 203rd MI Battalion. “There’s two levels of exploitation. Level I is collection — that is our teams that go out on objective sites, capture the enemy materiel and bring it back for the purposes of exploitation.”

Collection teams conduct Level I technical intelligence gathering at the objective. At the CMEC, Soldiers carry out Level II exploitation, using specialized stations to preserve evidence, identify hazards, examine equipment, and generate intelligence reports.

Before recovered equipment enters the CMEC, it goes through a triage station staffed by specialists in chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear hazards, as well as explosive ordnance disposal personnel.

“The main tool that I use in triage is called the JCAD — the Joint Chemical Agent Detector,” said Staff Sgt. Zakary Fisch, the battalion’s CBRN subject-matter expert. “It detects chemical warfare agents such as nerve, blister or blood agents, and it can also be switched to check for toxic industrial chemicals like chlorine.”

Staff Sgt. Matthew Dimaria, an EOD specialist supporting the CMEC, said that each item is visually inspected and, when necessary, X-rayed before it is cleared for exploitation.

“My job out here at the triage is to ensure that nothing hazardous makes it into the CMEC,” Dimaria said. “I inspect everything that’s coming back just to ensure that nothing was missed.”

The importance of that process was emphasized during a training scenario involving a closed laptop recovered by a collection team. The team handled the device according to its standard operating procedures. During triage, X-ray screening revealed a simulated nail bomb set to explode if the laptop was opened.

“Because our collection team followed their standardized operating procedure, and triage was successful in finding the explosive, we saved the lives of that entire team,” Avery said. “Which is just an example of how important Level I and Level II exploitation is.”

Once cleared, equipment enters the CMEC through an in-processing station where Soldiers verify the chain of custody and debrief the recovery team about conditions at the site. Recovered materiel then moves through warehousing, photography, forensics, and specialized exploitation cells.

“Photography is all about taking the items that we’re exploiting and getting clear pictures,” said Spc. Eric Yabor, who supports the CMEC photography cell. “You can get exact measurements, distinguishing marks, serial numbers, and custom marks that could perhaps get some kind of intelligence value.”

At the objective, collection teams document how equipment was found before moving it, aiding analysts in understanding its possible use and battlefield situation.

“We start gathering information to be able to paint the picture for the analyst of how this materiel plays into the general war,” said 1st Lt. Camden Walrath, the company’s collection officer in charge. “If it’s a drone, did it crash? What direction was it traveling? What is its damage? Just any sort of modifications from the previous drones that we know of.”

During Northern Strike, the battalion trained with simulated foreign equipment, including autonomous ground systems, unmanned surface vessels, armored vehicles, off-the-shelf unmanned aerial systems, weapons materiel, and CBRN equipment. Exercise scenarios involved technical intelligence collection on a German Wiesel light armored reconnaissance vehicle, a T-72 tank, an unmanned surface vessel, and a simulated enemy UAV cache.

Capt. Ian Guillotte, exercise planning officer for the National Intelligence Support Group, said the German Wiesel provided Soldiers with a chance to apply their technical skills to an unfamiliar foreign platform.

“It’s good training for our guys to get out here on an unfamiliar vehicle that has some similarities to U.S. vehicles,” Guillotte said. “They can use their technical expertise as a track mechanic on a Bradley or a tank, and they can apply those skills to a foreign-engineered vehicle of a similar capacity.”

The Wiesel, a small two-person tracked weapon platform, was transported to the CMEC by CH-47 Chinook during a sling-load operation. The training involved support from the 1st Battalion, 106th Aviation Regiment, and the 861st Quartermaster Company, allowing the 203rd to practice the coordination needed to recover and operate large, captured equipment.

At the CMEC, technical experts used X-ray systems and 3D imaging to examine the vehicle’s internal layout, functionality, and capabilities.

“If folks see something new on the battlefield, and we’ve been able to understand a little bit about it, we can have a better idea, strategically or tactically, of what that vehicle might be doing,” Guillotte said. “It’s a great opportunity for us to get our subject matter experts out here.”

The CMEC also tested a simulated unmanned ground vehicle, often called a robot dog, to mimic how an enemy might use autonomous systems.

“We simulated that the enemy was utilizing this drone to assault or surveil American Soldiers,” Avery said. “We disabled it, collected it, brought it back to the CMEC for the purposes of exploitation and practice.”

Once individual exploitation cells complete their analysis, the information is sent to the production cell. There, all-source intelligence analysts compile reports into a comprehensive technical report for secure submission to support the wider intelligence picture.

“On the production cell, we use the information given to us from our preliminary technical reports from the collections team,” said Spc. Sydney Booker, a 35F assigned to the 203rd MI Battalion. “We take that information, and we exploit it, and we turn all of that into a complementary technical report.”

The reports include analyst comments, times and locations, equipment descriptions, and technical specifications. Booker said the work requires both speed and accuracy.

“The biggest challenge might be how fast-paced it can get,” Booker said. “Right now, we are on a 72-hour timeline. That is the standard for our comptechreps to be done and sent up. But sometimes, if it’s a priority, it could be done in 24 hours.”

The 203rd also trained alongside U.S. military personnel, civilian technical experts, and UK soldiers, providing the unit with an opportunity to practice technical intelligence operations in a collaborative environment.

“It’s a chance for them to learn something a little different, a chance to practice operating in a combined environment,” said a 203rd MI Battalion Soldier supporting the CMEC. “It’s a chance for us to practice operating with them as well.”