scope:

PURPOSE. Pursuant to the authority vested in the Secretary of Defense by section 113 of title 10, United States Code (U.S.C.) (Reference (a)), this Directive:

a. Establishes policy and assigns responsibilities within the DoD to develop and maintain an enduring, holistic, global forensic capability to support the full range of military operations (ROMO). The DFE consists of those DoD resources, assets, and processes that provide forensic science analysis linking persons, places, things, and events. These linkages are made in both traditional law-enforcement and medical purviews, as well as in the expeditionary environment. The DFE supports numerous customers, including military criminal investigators, medical examiners, joint force commanders (JFCs), and criminal-intelligence and intelligence analysts. Not included in the DFE are those distinct, non-traditional missions requiring unique forensic disciplines that support technical nuclear, technical chemical, and biological disciplines, and specialized intelligence.

b. Establishes, under the provisions of DoD Instruction (DoDI) 5105.18 (Reference (b)), the Forensic Executive Committee (EXCOM) to coordinate the activities of the DFE (see Enclosure 2).

c. Assigns the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (USD(AT&L)) the Principal Staff Assistant (PSA) responsibilities pursuant to DoD Directive (DoDD) 5101.1 (Reference (c)) for the DFE.

d. Designates the Secretary of the Army as the DoD Executive Agent (EA) for Forensics, in accordance with Reference (c) and DoDD 5154.24 (Reference (d)), for those forensic disciplines relating to deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), serology, firearms and tool marks, latent prints, questioned documents, drug chemistry, and trace materials, as well as forensics relating to forensic medicine disciplines such as forensic pathology, forensic anthropology, forensic toxicology, and DNA analysis to identify human remains.

e. Designates the Secretary of the Air Force as the DoD EA for Digital and Multimedia (D/MM) Forensics in accordance with Reference (c) and DoDD 5505.13E (Reference (e)), for those forensics disciplines relating to computer and electronic device forensics, audio forensics, image analysis, and video analysis. f. Assigns to the Director, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), primary responsibility for intelligence activities and programs related to forensics pursuant to DoDD 5105.21 (Reference (f)).

g. Cancels the USD(AT&L) Memorandum (Reference (g)).

APPLICABILITY. This Directive:

a. Applies to OSD, the Military Departments, the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Joint Staff, the Combatant Commands, the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Defense (IG, DoD), the Defense Agencies, the DoD Field Activities, and all other organizational entities within the DoD (hereinafter referred to collectively as the "DoD Components").

b. Does not apply to:

(1) Technical nuclear or technical chemical and biological forensics, including forensic disciplines that support these efforts, which are distinct, non-traditional missions requiring unique capabilities that are governed by title 50, U.S.C. (Reference (h)), and DoDDs 5160.05E and S-2060.04 (References (i) and (j)).

(2) Specialized intelligence collected through reconnaissance programs by the DoD offices described at subsection 3.5(h)(7) of Executive Order 12333 (Reference (k)), which involve the quantitative measurement and interpretation of signatures performed outside the scope of the Capstone Concept of Operations for DoD Forensics (Reference (l)).