Essential elements of information


Essential elements of information is any critical intelligence information required by intelligence consumers to perform their mission. The EEI are specific to a particular event, thing, or other target individual. The EEI are written out in advance as questions by consumers of the EEI information. Then, the EEI questions are used by collectors of the information that may not be in direct contact with the consumer at the time the information is collected. A specific set of EEIs are used by collectors to develop a collection plan to find the answers to the questions in the EEIs. EEIs are also used in non-intelligence fields, such as responders to crisis events or medical emergencies.

Definitions

The United States Department of Defense defines EEI as follows:
The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence defines EEI as follows:
The United States Army eliminated the term EEI from its doctrine in August 2014, though Joint doctrine still uses the term.

Examples

An air force unit might have the following EEI about SA-20 batteries:
A medical crisis manager might have the following EEIs: