JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. - Biometrics refers to the unique identifying features of people and the Department of Defense uses this measurement to help identify enemies. The use of biometrics in today's environment has vastly improved since 2001 when U.S. Forces in Kosovo used it to help identify Kosovan workers coming on to the camps. The system has developed in to a weapon that is more portable and useful in verifying identities.
The biometrics automated toolset is a collection system designed to capture the physiological aspect of humans: fingerprints, irises, and facial features. The Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment is the portable cousin to the BAT. The HIIDE provides the BAT with wireless biometrics verification and in some cases a collection capability by storing up to 22 thousand profiles.
Andy MacLennan, biometric trainer for Booz Allen Hamilton, said company intelligence support teams employ the BAT system while units on the ground use the HIIDE system.
"In today's counterinsurgency environment the enemy has shown us the ability to hide in the populous. They look like the people, talk like the people, and don't wear a uniform."
Biometric scanning makes them identifiable.
MacLennan recently trained Soldiers from Joint Base Lewis-McChord on operating these systems. 1st Lt. Jeremy Smith, a security officer with the 5th Battalion 20th Infantry Regiment, came to learn the system before deploying to Afghanistan where he'll be talking and helping locals. Using this system will give him the edge needed to identify the enemies in his area.
For biometrics to be effective the person needs to be familiar with the human features.
"It helps us gather census data so we know who is in our area and what they're doing," Smith said.
If a unit stumbles upon a large number of weapons they can scan them for fingerprints. They run the fingerprint against the data stored in BATs. If the system finds a positive match from the lifted fingerprint it gives investigators a face and a name.
"There are more enemies getting prosecuted using biometrics than there are getting shot with rifles," MacLennan stated.
Soldiers at all levels can use these systems according to MacLennan.
Pfc. Vardry Ziegler Jr., transportation management coordinator of the 340th Transportation Detachment Movement Control Team out of San Diego, said, "this allows us to identify enemies if they come in to our area of operations."
The BAT and HIIDE systems play an important role to troops on the ground in Afghanistan. Together the BAT and HIIDE capture, transmit, store, share, retrieve, match, and display biometrics data to identify the enemy.
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