Accurate identification of targets, even in the most remote locations, is critical to military operations. Dr Gareth Evans investigates how biometrics-based identification technology has developed from a clunky add-on into an integral part of mission equipment and perhaps the precursor to an entirely new form of enemy surveillance
Little more than five years ago, biometric technology still largely represented a new and somewhat unconventional item in the military toolkit - an “add-on to the mission”, in the words of Myra S Gray, director of the US Army’s Biometrics Identity Management Agency (BIMA).