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QUANTICO, Va. - Marine Corps Systems Command has made it easier
for Marines to tell the bad guys from the good guys. Within six
months after receiving an Urgent Statement of Need, MCSC's Force
Protection Systems team, under Marine Air-Ground Task Force Command,
Control and Communications, also called MC3, coordinated with the
Army to field the Biometric Enrollment and Screening Device to
warfighters in Afghanistan.
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Marines with Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, fingerprints an Afghan man with the Biometric Enrollment and Screening Device while searching compounds near Patrol Base Boldak,
Afghanistan during Operation Grizzly IV on July 29, 2013. (U.S.
Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Bobby Yarbrough)
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The BESD system is an ultra lightweight, ruggedized,
handheld portable device that collects and stores biometrics
information. It compares and matches fingerprints, iris
images and facial photos against an internal biometric
database to identify individuals encountered on the
battlefield. It is an enabler in the areas of detainee
management and questioning, base access, counterintelligence
screening, border control and law enforcement.
“The
BESD provides Marines the ability to identify friendly or
neutral individuals' true identities while denying the enemy
anonymity,” said Ilich Bello, FPS
senior program analyst. “It supports the biometric
enterprise requirement to capture forensic-quality rolled
fingerprints, and meets Department of Defense and FBI
standards.”
According to FPS authorities, for the
past 12 months more than 2,000 Marines and coalition
warfighters have received BESD training, and in turn, they
have enrolled about 19,000 persons of interest resulting in
more than 300 placed on a watch list.
The early
assets were fielded as “theater-provided equipment, as an
interim and immediate fielding solution,” said Sarah Longava,
Identification and Detection Systems team lead for FPS.
On May 30, the MC3 program manager approved the fielding
of the BESD assets to Marine units as a formal fielding.
Since then the new biometric devices have been fielded to I,
II and III Marine Expeditionary Forces, and to the Command
and Control Training and Education Center of Excellence on
Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va.
“The successful
fielding decision culminates more than a year's worth of
hard work by all members of FPS to stand-up an acquisition
program to ensure that the fielded capability is safe,
suitable and supportable,” Bello said.
“The primary
accomplishment was the team's ability to facilitate rapid
procurement and fielding of BESD assets through the Army
Biometrics Program Office,” Longava added. “Thanks to
extensive negotiations in establishing a memorandum of
agreement with the Army, all the entities and stakeholders
worked together to devise a plan to ensure the system was
deployed. We are very proud to have met our customer's
expectations in providing an upgraded capability for
biometrics collection.”
By USMC Bill Johnson-Miles
Marine Corps Systems Command
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2013
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