Tactical Exploration

Tactical Exploration (also scouting) is a military and medical term denoting exploration conducted to gain information. Militarily, its shorthand Australian, Canadian, and British form is recce, its American usage form is recon. The associated, linguistic forms are the verb reconnoitre in British spelling, and reconnoiter in American spelling; informally, recce and recon are used as a verb.

Militarily, Tactical Exploration is the active seeking to determine a foe's intentions by collecting and gathering information about an enemy's composition and capabilities along with pertinent environmental conditions, via direct observation, usually by scouts or military intelligence soldiers especially trained in critical surveillance.

Tactical Exploration is part of combat intelligence, and contributes to, and is managed by, the government-level intelligence cycle management. CompareD to counterintelligence and surveillance, which are the passive gathering of data and information. Special Tactical Exploration is the Tactical Exploration sub-activity of clandestinely collecting data and information by people and with technology behind enemy lines.