Biometrics will find niches in new cold, warm and hot wars — report

An interview with the U.S Defense Forensics and Biometrics Agency predicts how warfare will need to change as in the next seven years, as the nation again faces off with so-called near-peer adversaries

Senior analyst Bob Cosgrove, speaking to the defense-oriented publication Signal, says biometrics will be used in new ways it was not when the United States focused more on terroristic threats.

In multi-domain operations involving formidable nations including China and Russia, biometrics will be used to give the U.S. Army an enduring information advantage. (That advantage is already being pursued in other areas of the federal government.)

Cosgrove lists situations in which facial recognition and other biometric surveillance techniques will be critical for clarifying what an enemy is doing.

Perhaps most interesting is how the Army could uncover telling details like when, as is widely suspected, Russian troops in green uniforms infiltrated Ukraine eight years ago to destabilize the smaller nation and prepare for ongoing covert missions there.

The so-called little green men were largely anonymous, but gait biometrics could have identified individuals, making it harder for Russia to deny involvement. The evidence could be used in an argument to take military action.

Biometrics also could see behind efforts to disguise personnel, including proxies, who take actions including war crimes, according to the article in Signal, which is published by AFCEA.

Anonymity can almost be considered a force multiplier in that a few people can hide not just in crowds but in entire urban locations, creating havoc that is hard to counter.

The article describes how soldiers could walk among residents wearing augmented reality goggles looking for specific combatants. The autocratic government of China already has put systems like this on its own streets.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  biometrics research  |  facial recognition  |  gait recognition  |  identity verification  |  surveillance  |  U.S. Army