5-2. Special operations missions are both intelligence-driven and intelligence-dependent. Intelligence products developed for these units must be detailed, accurate, relevant, predictive, and timely. These intelligence products enable commanders to identify and assess potential courses of action; plan operations; properly direct their forces; employ ethical, effective, and efficient tactics and techniques; and implement protection. For example, infiltrating into a hostile environment to conduct a noncombatant evacuation operation in a dense urban environment requires precise information about structures, elements of infrastructures, the surrounding populations and the location(s) of persons to be evacuated. National- and theater-level intelligence products are often required at a lower echelon than is normally associated with support to conventional operations. Special operations missions may also require near-real-time dissemination of intelligence directly to the lowest echelon—the force conducting actions on the objective.