USSOCOM Enhances Exploration Capabilities

USSOCOM ENHANCES EXPLOITATION CAPABILITIES

BY SCOTT R. GOURLEY

Key exploitation capabilities are being enhanced across SOCOM. Sensitive Site Exploitation (SSE) was one of three key focus areas for Technical Experimentation (TE) 17-2. Held in late March 2017 at Camp Atterbury-Muscatatuck Center for Complex Operations in Indiana, the event was designed to “provide an opportunity for technology developers to interact with operational personnel to determine how their technology development efforts and ideas may support or enhance SOF capability needs.”

Some of the exploitation challenges faced by SOF operators can be ascertained through the list of technology areas and performance tasks identified for the event, including: Voice matching (multi-speaker) with collection and segregation of voice from media or live capture; handheld detection of materials including biologicals, chemicals, and hazards (including hidden chambers and false materials); rapid DNA handheld collection, processing, and matching technologies; facial recognition technologies 1 to 300 meters and up to 1 kilometer; dustless fingerprint collection; media exploitation capability priorities for 30 minutes or less; media exploitation capability priorities at the Exploitation Analysis Center (EAC) level; SSE Explosive Detection Kit (EDK); and embedded hazard detection and identification for exploitation analysis center (lab-like facility).

Apparently building on the identified interest in “media exploitation capability priorities at the Exploitation Analysis Center (EAC)” at TE 17.2, another recent example of expanding exploitation capabilities can be found in an announcement issued by U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Special Operations Command (MARSOC).

According to the announcement, the MARSOC EAC “is required to perform exploitation on a variety of modalities in order to support the TSOC [Theater Special Operations Command] and deployed SOF elements. Based on the combination of enemy and adversary TTPs [tactics, techniques, and procedures] and the endless progression of technology the threat is fluid and ever changing. In order to deploy a fully prepared EAC, additional exploitation training in the area of cellular devices is required.”

As a result, the announcement identifies a need for ISP (in-system programming)/Chip off training, as part of broader pre-deployment training, in an effort to ensure the deploying MARSOC elements “will have the latest capability in order to process the information from the latest commercial hardware devices used on the multidimensional battlefield.”

“Additionally ISP/Chip off allows the EAC Technician the ability to exploit damaged devices as well as devices that are non-exploitable with traditional means,” it notes.

The announcement outlined specifics for an eight-day Advanced ISP/Chip off Mobile Device Exploitation Course.

Designed to prepare the Marines for advanced cell phone exploitation, the course includes “how to exploit phones in a manner that is nondestructive but allows the EAC technician to access valuable information that would be lost using current fielded equipment. The program explores the principles, proper methods and procedures to access the data storage and memory of nonexploitable phones. The end state is the ability for an individual to conduct detailed exploitation and analysis of any device with a processor chip.”

In addition to “in depth information about eMMC [embedded Multimedia Card], eMCP [embedded Multi-Chip Package], and UFS [Universal Flash Storage] chips,” the course would also include instruction on “the newest BGA [ball grid array] chip pinout layouts” as well as things like “proper techniques for non-heat chip removal” and discussions of “pros and cons of physical manipulation caused by heat or friction removal techniques.”

The most recent example of a desire to enhance USSOCOM forensics/exploitation capabilities falling within the “biometrics” arena can be seen in an April 16, 2019 USSOCOM request for information (RFI). While not directly tied to SSE, it’s easy to see how this could represent a critical supporting technology.

According to the RFI, the command’s Special Operations Force Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (SOF AT&L), Program Executive Office - Special Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Exploitation (PEO - SRSE), Program Manager - Sensitive Site Exploitation (PM-SSE) seeks to identify “potential commercial offthe-shelf [COTS] technologies for participation in the evaluation of mass biometrics enrollment including the collection and on-board storage of a subject’s facial photograph, iris, and fingerprints.”

“USSOCOM is conducting an evaluation of collection capabilities/devices for the full spectrum of biometrics collection including but not limited to iris, fingerprint, palm print, facial and voice capture capabilities. The event will focus on biometrics capture equipment to be used by the operator in a field environment on the objective or during mass enrollments of personnel. Production ready models must be stand-alone and can be either handheld or desk-top devices.”

As part of the investigation, a Limited User Assessment of these COTS technologies is being planned for July of this year. During the assessment, industry hardware and equipment submitted in response to the RFI and follow-up discussions/activities will be evaluated by SOF operators and other subject matter experts to ascertain whether or not the systems are “capable of performing specific core mission tasks conducted by Special Operations Forces in a non-tactical environment for biometric collection and identification of personnel.”