Telling Friend From Foe  

By Jeff Erlichman

Identifying a person using only their voice; using short wave infrared technology to see through smoke and dust; and building more powerful mobile servers and scalable platforms – just three of the many things on the biometric horizon.

Using a person’s physical attributes - iris pattern, fingerprints and facial structure for identification makes biometrics a more reliable alternative to traditional identification methods.  Warfighters rely on biometrics to tell friend from foe and prevent the enemy from hiding in local civilian populations. 

At PM DOD Biometrics, the Biometrics Program Management Office currently fields and supports several biometric collection, management and storage devices used for identity detection. 

“Our main goal is to leverage these systems to ensure the safety of the Warfighter by identifying “bad guys” in the field, prevent them from accessing our bases and pick them out of a crowd when they try to hide.  A secondary goal is to allow the “good guys”, i.e. the members of the local population who assist coalition forces, to freely go about their business,” program officials told 1105 Government Information Group Custom Media in a written interview.

Program officials further said “PM DOD Biometrics envisions a future where systems can not only identify a person by their fingerprints, or by their iris patterns which can only be collected up close, but to also identify them by their voice or facial structure at a distance, and to leverage additional biometric modalities to enhance warfighter identity dominance.”  

While moving towards the future, there are biometric programs that are working right now.

Biometrics In Action: Biometric Identification System for Access (BISA)
In December 2004 at the U.S. Base near Mosul, a suicide bombing killed 22 people and injured 72. It was determined the facility’s badging system was “exploitable”.  Needed was an improved system for base access security that better identified the enemy as they attempted to enter.

To solve the problem, the Deputy Secretary of Defense initiated the development and deployment of a biometrically enabled credential for base access.  BISA was subsequently developed and deployed.

BISA is a Force Protection initiative that collects multi-modal biometric and biographical information to produce a biometrically enabled smartcard or PIN badge to control access of US-controlled facilities in Iraq.

The system enrolls local nationals, third country nationals and coalition force members.  Local and third country nationals supply biometrics (fingerprints, photos, and iris images) and this information is screened through DOD-ABIS v1.0 and the FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) systems said officials.

BISA produces and issues access credentials (smart card badge) with printed information and encrypted digital information on the chip of the applicant’s photo, selected fingerprints, and irises. This information can then be used to verify personnel entering U.S. Installations to ensure the vetted person is who they say they are.

During a BISA enrollment, fingerprint, iris, and facial biometric data are collected, along with biographical data, using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software components that have been tailored to DOD use. 

The system is self-contained; it includes all biometric enrollment, conversion and storage, transmission, badge production, and verification devices. 

When a BISA badge holder requests entrance into a controlled facility, the bearer is verified through a match between a live scan of the individual’s fingerprint and the fingerprint stored
on the smartcard.

BISA was first deployed in ten large sites, but has since been expanded to 42 locations.  Since BISA’s deployment, over 200,000 base access cards have been issued and no further terrorist acts have killed or injured personnel on US bases in the manner of the Mosul attack.  Additionally, over 300 applicants have been detained via the process or barred from base access. 

Equally important programs include Next-Generation Automated Biometric Identification System (DOD ABIS v1.0); and the Joint Personal Identification Version 2 (JPIv2) which includes the Biometric Automated Toolset (BAT).

Further officials said PM DOD Biometrics is preparing for two future programs:  Biometric Enabling Capability (BEC) (formerly Biometric Enterprise Core Capability or BECC) and Joint Personnel Identification version 2 (JPIv2) (formerly Biometric Family of Capabilities for Full Spectrum Operations or BFCFSO).