Marines run simulations to evaluate new biometric systems

A group of U.S. Marines and civilians recently participated in tactical exercises in rural Indiana to evaluate a pair of new biometric systems which Marine Corps Systems Command is considering as a replacement for its current system, the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) reports.

Marines worked through a series of scenarios that could be experienced on the battlefield in an urban training complex in Muscatatuck, Indiana, giving stakeholders an opportunity to observe the identity operations with the equipment. The interoperability between systems was also tested incorporating an Expeditionary Forensics Exploitation Capability (EFEC).

“The event gave Marines an opportunity to be in the field, evaluate the equipment and provide candid feedback of these systems,” MCSC Identity Operations Team Lead Sarah Swift told DVIDS. “They let us know which system is more operationally relevant to them.”

Exercises included a simulated Entry Control Point for a detention facility, with role players representing displaced persons seeking employment, and having biometric and other data collected. In another scenario, a bombing and flooded village were simulated, with the EFEC deployed to assess the bomb site and gather information about it and local residents. Marines scanned subject’s fingerprints and irises, took photographs, and DNA swabs to match against a watch list. This was followed by a raid scenario in which biometrics capture from deceased subjects was simulated.

Swift emphasized the importance of identity operations exercises and involving stakeholders, and says a new intelligence system will be deployed by Marines in the second quarter of fiscal 2020.

Booz Allen Hamilton won a $36.6 million contract to supply hand-held biometric devices to the U.S. Navy in February.

Article Topics

biometric testing  |  biometrics  |  data collection  |  military  |  United States