US Special Operators Are Using Rapid DNA Readers
Special Operators Are Using Rapid DNA Readers
May 20, 2015 By Patrick Tucker
Conducting a midnight SEAL raid on a terrorist compound?
Positive DNA identification is just 90 minutes away.
TAMPA — Fingerprints are so 20th-century. For special
operations forces conducting midnight raids in places like Pakistan or Syria,
DNA is becoming the gold standard.
On Wednesday, representatives from the U.S. Special
Operations Command revealed that they were testing two rapid DNA readers in
forward locations. The operators feed in a DNA sample, and the reader compares
it against a database that matches DNA to identities. The machines weigh some
60 pounds, so they aren’t small. And they aren’t cheap: each costs about
$250,000. But they can give a result in 90 minutes, a process that used to take
weeks.
“These things are downrange and we’re spending a year
gathering data — on the utility, on how well is it working, the match rate, how
well are the operators keeping them up and running,” said Michael S. Fitz,
manager of the Sensitive Site Exploitation Special Reconnaissance, Surveillance
& Exploitation program at U.S. Special Operations Command. He said that
because the program was so new, “we’re saving it for the juicy missions.”
The devices are the RapidHIT 200 from IntegenX, a
California-based company, and the DNAscan from Massachusetts-based NetBIO. Both
are about the size of a copier, but compared to an entire DNA lab, require far
less manpower. A single operator can get quick results. “In the past, when we
captured DNA, the guy would put it in an envelope, send it back to the States
and two or three weeks later, he would get a result on who it was that he had.
By then, he moved on to other missions and he had forgotten who the guy was,”
said Fitz.
What will they use them for? Verifying the identity of
targets, either before raids or after the fact. “Our whole program is built
around follow-on targeting. We don’t gather biometrics for criminal
prosecution,” Fitz said. “Our primary objective is actionable intelligence for
follow-on targeting.” Think back to the Osama Bin Laden raid, where the
terrorist mastermind’s identity was confirmed via DNA analysis, according to
documents leaked by Edward Snowden. In the future, virtually all terrorist
suspects and insurgents killed by special operations teams could receive the
same treatment.
The private market is actually full of interesting
DNA-verification equipment. But most gear is too big, expensive, and delicate —
hardly “designed for that forward-deployed location,” said Fitz.
Ultimately, he wants a rugged, battery-powered DNA reader
the size of a cellphone, which will allow special operations fighters to
“collect DNA right there on the site.” It should connect to a database to allow
verification on location as well.
Such a device might be available for field-testing around
2019 or 2020. “It’s a ways out” said Benji Hutchinson, senior director of
federal business for MophoTrust, a company that markets the IntegenX. It would
“require a major lift,” he said.
Shrinking the technology is just one obstacle to a
hand-held DNA matching system. Perhaps more important is growing the database
of DNA samples to match against.
“Right now the database is a criminal database: U.S.
people. We haven’t been collecting DNA, in part because it’s been a cumbersome
and lengthy process to do that. There was no reason for the units to go out and
collect DNA because the results were so slow,” Fitz said. He described Defense
Department’s DNA database as “not robust; not populated with the people we’re
interested in…Right now, rapid DNA is about where fingerprints were 10 or 12
years ago.”
During the height of U.S. operations in Afghanistan, the
military fielded a device to take fingerprints, iris scans, and photos of
people with whom troops came in contact. It was called the Biometrics Automated
Toolset, and its data went on to populate the Defense Department’s Automated
Biometric Identification System.
“When we first went out with fingerprints we got about a
5 percent match rate. Now we’ve populated the database, so we get 40 percent
match,” said Fitz. He hopes DNA matching will show the same rapid improvement.
“You’ve got to start somewhere,” he said.
Comments
Post a Comment