Army contract awarded to Northrop Grumman
25 February, 2009
category: Biometrics, Government
The Northrop Grumman Corporation (NGC) has announced that a United States Army biometrics contract valued at $36.9 million has been awarded to it for upgrading the multi-modal Biometric Intelligence Resource (BIR) system.
The BIR system is a tool used by the Army in Iraq and Afghanistan by tracking known terrorists via facial recognition, fingerprints and iris scans. Additionally, the system collects data from a number of other biometric systems, such as hand held scanners used by military personnel in the field, biometric check points at military installations and U.S. job applicants.
Part of the upgrades to be performed by NGC is a better ability to share biometric data between U.S. agencies allowing for quicker and broader matches across other government databases as well as better detail relationships between those on the databases. The contract covers one year and the design and implementation of the new BIR system, but there are options for up to an additional four-years on the contract.