F3EAD: SOF Specific Targeting in the Intelligence Cycle

Grey Dynamics’ “F3EAD: SOF-Specific Targeting in the Intelligence Cycle” reframes the familiar Find–Fix–Finish–Exploit–Analyze–Disseminate model as more than a relic of the GWOT era, arguing that its real value lies in how it fuses intelligence and operations to generate tempo in ambiguous, human-centric fights. In irregular warfare, F3EAD excels because it treats targets as nodes in networks—social, financial, operational—where exploitation and analysis matter as much as the “finish,” enabling SOF to adapt continuously inside an adversary’s decision cycle.

Its implicit relevance to large-scale combat operations (LSCO) is that this logic still applies, but at scale: F3EAD-style targeting can inform how SOF enables conventional formations by turning tactical actions into operational-level insight, deep fires, shaping maneuver, and revealing adversary intent across domains.

The challenge going forward is not whether F3EAD is obsolete, but whether its IW-honed discipline of rapid learning and dissemination can be institutionalized for LSCO without sacrificing the precision, restraint, and intelligence rigor that made it effective in the first place.