A new piece of technology will allow U.S. special forces to conduct DNA testing on suspected terrorists in the field and have a result within 90 minutes.
According to a
Defense One report, the technology is called DNA readers. Two are currently being tested "downrange."
"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," Michael S. Fitz of U.S. Special Operations Command told Defense One.
The DNA readers weigh 60 pounds and cost $250,000 each, according to Defense One.
Under the normal DNA testing process, a result sometimes takes weeks to come back. But the readers in use by the military take less than two hours.
One of the devices is made by a California company, while the other is manufactured in Massachusetts.
"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," Fitz told Defense One. "By then, he moved on to other missions and he had forgotten who the guy was."
The portable testers will be used to identify targets when they are captured on the battlefield.
"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."
Fitz added that the military's hope is to have a device the size of a cell phone for on-the-spot DNA testing. That could come by the end of the current decade, he told Defense One.
U.S. Special Forces have made headlines over the years in their Middle East work. Seal Team Six, for example, was responsible for
killing Osama bin Laden in 2011 during a nighttime raid in Pakistan.
And just this week, it was reported that U.S. Army commandos
killed a high-ranking member of the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group.
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