The US Marine Corps has upgraded its in-the-field biometric identification system.
Its previous Biometric Enrollment and Screening Device is being replaced by the Identity Dominance System-Marine Corps, or IDS-MC. The system revolves around a laptop computer partnered with a handheld device that facilitates the capture of face, fingerprint, and iris biometrics. Biometric matching can be performed on the devices, and shared immediately through the Tactical Data Network, as well as the Department of Defense’s Automated Biometric Identification System.
IDS-MC was designed specifically to support Marine teams in hostile environments, and is meant to help track enemy combatants, and to facilitate access control. It collects not only biometric information, but additional biographical information and location data for use by intelligence analysts.
Summing up the device’s value proposition in a post on the Marine Corps website, IDS-MC Project Office Maj. Keystella Mitchell explained, “It can be difficult to determine who the enemy is because they truly blend in with their surroundings. The IDS-MC is a game changer and force multiplier as a connected system for the commander on the ground because they can identify the threat and take action much quicker than before.”
The system was put into play via field tests conducted in September, and the Marine Corps Systems Command reports that in its first month of operations alone, it produced a 154 percent jump in biometric data collections submitted to the Marine Corps Intelligence Agency Identity Intelligence Analytical Cell, the intelligence branch mandated with assessing biometric intelligence.
Source: United States Marine Corps
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December 12, 2017 – by Alex Perala
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