The Army Feb. 23 awarded Northrop Grumman [NOC] a $36.9 million cost-plus-award-fee contract to enhance the capabilities of the Biometric Intelligence Resource (BIR) system, which uses biometric data, such as fingerprints, facial recognition or iris scans to identify and track individuals of interest in the Global War on Terrorism.
BIR is a massive repository linking disparate biometric intelligence-gathering tools and databases and is currently in use in Iraq and Afghanistan to identify and track terrorists, insurgents or other potential threats. BIR includes data from a variety of biometric-enabled systems, including hand-held devices carried by U.S. military forces while conducting raids in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as systems used to biometrically scan personnel entering overseas military installations or applying for U.S. jobs, and includes data such as fingerprints or DNA samples found on bomb fragments.
Northrop Grumman designed, fielded and accredited the current version BIR system, which includes a service-oriented architecture, and will design and field a significantly enhanced next-generation BIR under the new contract from the Army’s National Ground Intelligence Center, Charlottesville, Va. The contract includes one base year and four one-year options. The next-generation BIR will include biometric-enabled intelligence from a wider variety of U.S. agencies and organizations.
“With this new system, intelligence analysts will be able to better share information among organizations, making it easier to connect the dots and significantly enhancing national security,” Barry Rhine, vice president and general manager of Northrop Grumman’s Command and Control Systems Division, said.
The next-generation system will recognize when the data on individuals is included in the databases of multiple agencies; keep track of when and where people are encountered, providing a more complete understanding of their movements; and supply greater information on relationships between and among individuals–familial relationships, neighbors, co- workers, and shared addresses or phone numbers, for example.
The Northrop Grumman team includes SAIC [SAI], San Diego; Booz-Allen-Hamilton, McLean, Va.; and Cobham’s SPARTA Inc., Lake Forest, Calif.