Vice Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Visits Biometrics Fusion Center

BFC Director Sam Cava (right) shows ADM Giambastiani biometric enrollment equipment.

“What I have seen here is of great importance,” said ADM Edmund Giambastiani, Jr., Vice Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff, during his April 10 visit to the Biometrics Fusion Center. “Stay engaged with the troops on the ground to build upon the value you all have developed for biometrics.”

During the two-hour visit, BFC Director Samuel Cava and the BFC team walked ADM Giambastiani, MG Conrad Ponder, Chief Integration Officer/G-6, and MG Dennis Moran, Vice Director for Command, Control, Communications, and Computer Systems (J6), through descriptions of fielded biometric implementations, ongoing biometric partnership initiatives, research and development activities, and the 24/7 support that goes with being a military organization involved in protecting the warfighter.

“Sir,” Cava said addressing ADM Giambastiani, “the staff at the BFC has truly remarkable professionals, many of whom make contributions that rival those at nationally renowned labs. Their technical savvy and inventiveness push programs from the drawing board to fielding along very uncompromising timelines. They know that any delay could result in unnecessary human loss. And the return, in terms of identifying bad guys, has been known to occur within minutes of turning on the information flow created by the fielded biometric system. That is what the power of biometrics provides in force protection, and there is so much more that goes on here.”

The BFC is involved in many biometrics initiatives that support the warfighter. These include: 24/7 assistance on the Biometric Identification System for Access (BISA) and other fielded systems; an indefatigable search for the best biometric systems to meet emerging requirements; outreach to build relationships across all DoD and governmental entities to leverage lessons learned; and test and evaluation of biometric hardware and software bound for use within DoD and other federal agencies.

Cava explained that the BFC first began as a test and evaluation center and has since become known as a center for biometric technology innovation. Leveraging its acumen and lessons learned on biometric implementations, the BFC has reached out to a number of DoD groups to field pilot biometric implementations that have matured into successfully fielded systems, such as the BISA.

ADM Giambastiani became well versed on the BISA, first receiving a tutorial on enrollment, and second on the efficiency of its transaction manager in praparing data for searching within the DoD Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS), the DoD’s Red Force biometric database.

Under the leadership of the BFC, the BISA program sped from concept development in February 2005 to prototype demonstration in April 2005 at Camp Dawson, a West Virginia Army National Guard installation. The first unit was delivered for installation in Iraq in August 2005 and the last of 10 units was delivered in February 2006. To date, BISA has collected and transmitted biometric data on tens of thousands of sponsored workers, printed more than 50,000 biometric-embedded identity cards for issuance, and serves as an access control tool on Multinational Force Iraq installations and other Coalition Force protected zones.

“What is the plan for expanding BISA?” asked ADM Giambastiani. “BISA, as it is configured, meets the need for identity vetting on military bases,” said Cava. “Extending it beyond that role requires some hard work on the part of our technical staff because it isn’t meant to be used as-is in all force protection environments.” Instead, the BFC has launched several initiatives to address advanced requirements for force protection at austere camps, for rapid collection of biometrics during mission operations, and for processing evidence to retrieve biometrics.

One pilot, which has been partially fielded, is the Mobile Forensics Laboratory. Designed in partnership with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the lab contains all the basic equipment for the intake, processing and storage of field-collected evidence. The lab will become a clearinghouse for troops to send items collected from improvised explosive devices, as well as paper documents, weapons, and other materials.

During one of his fact-finding missions to Iraq, Cava told ADM Giambastiani that Marines were bagging and tagging items for him to carry back to the U.S. for processing by the Mobile Forensics Laboratory even before it was shipped to Iraq. “The Marines, and other troops, are eager to learn, train, and carry out orders to systematically gather evidence. They understand the concept of gathering multimodal, multidata biometrics from all sources in efforts to fix, find and finish threats,” Cava reported to ADM Giambastiani.

“It is vitally important to remain engaged in research and development pursuits,” ADM Giambastiani said. “We are in a difficult fight in the Global War on Terrorism, and it’s clearly apparent the BFC has taken aim at making biometrics a tactical tool in warfighter protection. Several of the programs invented here seem to be filling the gaps in force protection that previously relied solely on human judgment.”