1st Edition
Biometrics in Support of Military Operations Lessons from the Battlefield
Biometrics in Support of Military Operations: Lessons from the Battlefield examines and evaluates recent U.S. military experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan in the context of the use of biometrics and related technologies. The book takes a comprehensive look at how biometrics has been used to support various military operations and suggests ways that its uses can be further developed. It fills a void in understanding how to incorporate biometrics by providing a guide to develop and establish formal operational roles and procedures when applying the technology.
Written in an informal style that makes it accessible to people who are not necessarily operators or technicians of biometrics technologies, this book bridges an existing gap to better educate leaders inside and outside of the U.S. military on the far-reaching potential of biometrics in support of tactical operations. It argues that the gap between those inside and outside the military is the result of failure to document lessons learned from battle experience, as well as a lack of a combined vision among the Joint Forces to fully recognize and exploit the capabilities of biometrics for enhanced future success. This book fills that gap.
Biometrics has great potential as an effective tool if properly developed and utilized. The book concludes with a look at the future of emerging applications for the military but also considers a wider range of deployment of biometrics outside the military, such as in governmental organizations, including foreign diplomacy. Biometrics can be applied to any operational area that requires accurate and rapid identification of unknown individuals in order to support its operations and protect personnel and resources. Biometrics in Support of Military Operations is an important beginning point in an emerging field for gaining understanding and better mastery of biometrics.
Why Do We Need Biometrics
Not a New Capability but New to the Battlefield
Biometrics Basics
What is Biometrics?
Identification vs. Verification
Acquiring Biometric Data
What Are Modalities?
Biometric Matching: What Does it Really Mean?
Biometrics and Forensics
Biometrics and Intelligence
Data-Sharing
"It’s the Network!"
General Operational Issues
Advanced Preparation is Key
Selecting the Right System for the Operation (or Modifying the Wrong One)
Match Your Matching Scheme to the Mission and the System
The Database(s)
Communications and Data Movement are Critical
Effective Policy Enables Effective Biometrics Operations
TTPs and Training
Collection Considerations
The Modality Should Match the Mission
The Impact of the Coalition Operations
The Six Ps: Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance
Biometrics Scenario 1: Preparing for Operation GORDON
Intelligence Support to Biometrics (and Vice Versa)
Biometrics-Enabled Intelligence
Biometrics-Enabled Watchlisting
BEI Support to the Targeting Process
Biometrically-Enabled IPB
Strategic Intelligence Applications of Identity Data
Identity Support for HUMINT and Counterintelligence (CI)
Source Operations
Biometrics Support for Interrogation Operations
In Conclusion: Intelligence is Critical to Biometrics
Scenario 2: Intelligence Impacts on Biometrics in Operation GORDON
Biometric Support to Offensive Operations
Biometrics Support to Targeted Operations
Attacking the Network
Biometrically-Enabled Checkpoint Operations
Biometric Reconnaissance
Biometrics Support for Population Management
Scenario 3: Raid on Baraawe
Biometrics Support for Defensive Operations
Biometrics for Access Control
Biometrics Support for Personal Vetting
Biometrics Can Help Detect Insider Threats
Biometrics for Tactical Force Protection
Scenario 3: Biometrics Support for Force Protection in Operation GORDON
Biometrics Support to Operations across the Military Spectrum
Managing Detainee-Processing and –Handling with Biometrics
Biometrics at the Border
Biometrics and the Legal Fight
Biometrics Support for Humanitarian Operations
Biometrics for Friendly-Force Identity Verification and Tracking
Chapter 7 Scenario: Biometrics for Detainee Management and Border Control in Operation GORDON
What’s Next for Military (and Other) Biometrics Operations?
Increasing Focus on "Blue Force" Capabilities
Improvement in Standoff and Mobile Collection
Improved Forensics Capabilities
Biometrics Ubiquity
Biometrics-Based Encryption
How Can Biometrics Be Used in Nonmilitary "Operations"?
Biometrically Enabled Diplomacy and Diplomatic Security
No More Benghazis: Biometrics Support to Diplomacy and Diplomatic Security
Why Not Use Biometrics to Protect Our Government’s Most Valuable Asset?
USSS Biometrics in Action
The Future of the U.S. Military Biometrics Capability
DoD Biometrics Needs an Agile Acquisition Program
Personnel Support for Future Biometrics Operations
Afterword: The U.S. Department of Defense Needs an Advanced Identity Enterprise
Open and Flexible Architecture
Integrated Biometrics Operations and Intelligence
Expanding the Concept of Enrollment
Beyond Biometrics
Beyond One-to-Many Identification
Biography
William C. Buhrow was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. He attended Wake Forest University and graduated in 1983 with a BA in history and a commission as a Military Intelligence Officer in the United States Army. He earned a master’s degree in strategic intelligence from the Defense Intelligence College before leaving active service in 1993 as a civilian intelligence analyst with the Defense Intelligence Agency. He returned to active service in 2003 as an intelligence officer for the Army’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence (G2). In 2007, he began a series of active duty tours with the Army’s Biometrics Task Force/Biometrics Identity Management Agency. He retired from the Army in 2012 and currently works as a contractor supporting the Department of Defense in the areas of biometrics and identity intelligence.
"Bill possesses a truly unique perspective on both the operational and intelligence aspects of biometrics, and this perspective makes it possible not only for him to effectively articulate the potential of current biometrics capabilities, but also to describe a vision for the capabilities our nation will require in the future. …I urge those who would lead the way to the military biometrics enterprise of the future, to read this book."
—MG (Ret.) Custer
