Pentagon outlines new, long-term biometric plans

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have made the U.S. military realize that biometrics technology can be of help in many of its missions. Accordingly, the Defense Department (DoD) has been focusing attention and resources on supporting U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) in these theaters to sort out friend or foe. The Pentagon also recognizes the need for a long-term approach to the use of biometrics in meeting the different identity management needs of DoD, so it has begun what is called a Capabilities Based Assessment (CBA) toward this end, said Thomas Dee, director of defense biometrics within the Pentagon’s Defense Research and Engineering (DDR&E) office. Dee explained that the two components of the Pentagon’s strategy for biometrics are proceeding parallel to each other:

* The Pentagon’s needs for identity management solutions, at the center of which is biometrics technology, include business functions such as physical and logical access and privilege management.

* On the combat side, the military needs to be able to identify persons of interest by collecting various biometrics and searching those biometrics against databases for possible connections to bomb making or other insurgent activities.

At the outset of the insurgency in Iraq, for example, CENTCOM had but few means to be able positively to identify insurgents. In the past few years, however, the Pentagon has purchased and deployed different types of biometrics collection equipment, search capabilities, and related communications to help it tear away the mask of anonymity behind which insurgents hide. Turning to DoD’s long-term needs, Dee said that “CENTCOM is not the end all to the Department of Defense’s requirements.” The Pentagon, therefore, plans to go through the operational user community to learn what the various combatant commanders need, he said.

This is where the ongoing CBA comes in. Dee said that the Joint Forces Command has begun work on the assessment, which will “help define the requirements that we want to be able to work with.” He said that some of the requirements will be met with off-the-shelf solution, but that there will probably be a need for additional development. This is where a science and technology support plan will come in as well as a roadmap to help guide the Pentagon in getting to the point where it can buy what it needs, he said.

Dee has been on the job less than a year in leading the Pentagon’s biometric coordination efforts. Last October the DDR&E was established as the overseer for defense biometrics.