From Improvised Rockets in Iraq to Drones Over Russia: Inside TECHINT with Travis Butson

Your intelligence team can tell you who fired the rocket. Almost none of them can tell you what it was, how it was built, or what’s coming next.

That gap has a name: TECHINT. And it’s the least understood discipline in the entire intelligence world.

This week I sat down with Travis Butson. 15 years with the New Zealand Defence Force, Air Force intelligence, and the man who built our new TECHINT course.

There is no equivalent of this course anywhere. I’ve looked.

In this episode:

• How Travis learned to think like the enemy, alone in an armoury with a Carl Gustaf and no doctrine to hold him back
• Tracking the adaptation cycles of improvised rocket systems in Iraq, and the Taji attack that changed how we think about insurgent capability
• Why one photo from a Chinese air show was worth more than classified reporting
• Op Spiderweb, drones, counter-UAS, and what happens when you underestimate a cunning enemy
• Why identifying a weapon system is the first minute of the job, not the job
• Inside the course: 15 modules, from the Battle of Thymbra to foreign materiel exploitation

Here’s the thing. Travis doesn’t just teach you to fish. He shows you how he fishes, then hands you the tackle box.

The course goes live on the 5th of July at the Grey Dynamics Intelligence School.

And that story about the Pantsirs in Sudan?

The one I couldn’t wrap my head around in 2023? You’ll want to hear how that ends.

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