2020-Modern Intelligence Support Activity

[Discord]

Written by DeveloperNes

Pipeline

ISA's selection and training process is definitely not public, however we do know a few basic things about it. First, we know that the selection process is not open to everyone, second, we know that a majority of ISA operators came from US Army Special Forces.

Organization/Jobs

From the 1986 document declassification, we know ISA's organization looks like this:

ISA Org

If you can't really make sense of it, I don't blame you, so here is the breakdown of what you need to know:

ISA Dudes

Firearms

There are very few photos of ISA online, and the ones we do have aren't even completely confirmed, however based on the limited information, I'd say that ISA uses quad rail HK416 considering their counterparts at CIA SOG seem quite fond of it, it's also possible they use the M4A1 URGI of Rangers and ODA or the HK416D SMR of 24th STS and CAG, but it's unlikely in my opinion. For sidarms, they most likely just use the standard issue Glock 19 for almost all USSOCOM personnel.

Gear

I have literally zero idea on the specifics, but make sure you base your kits around this: What are they doing? If they are doing a HUMINT gathering operation, why would they be in regular operator kit? Units like early GWOT CAG, CIA SOG, and ISA all use local weapons and equipment to blend in most of the time, however if they are doing a quick infil-exfil or AFO operation, I'd say they probably use pretty average gear.

Tactics

ISA is NOT a direct action force, they have two main operations capabilities. Facilitating other tier 1 units (specifically CAG and DEVGRU), and collecting intelligence via SIGINT and HUMINT. The second one is more self explanitory, so I'll be focusing on the first main capability. ISA can infil, sustain, and exfil a tier 1 unit for a mission, they don't always do all of these every time, but they have in the past, sometimes they just do sustain or just exfil, they also do something known as Advance Force Operations or "AFO". Advance Force Operations are operations where a unit will move in ahead of the main force in order to set conditions for the smooth execution of a mission. In practice, this could be picking the locks on the external doors of a building, last minute confirmation of the location of a hostage or other HVT, or maybe some kind of recce/overwatch.

Links