The U.S. Defense Department in September selected Brazil’s Griaule to supply and operate biometric identity management systems for the governments of Afghanistan and Iraq, a contract that represents the company’s largest award with the U.S. government.
The award for the Afghanistan and Iraqi Automated Biometric Identification Systems (ABIS) is worth about $75 million over five years. Under the contract, Griaule will supply its ABIS system and biometric matching algorithms, as well as related operations and support help.
The award is a foreign military sale and is overseen by the DoD Biometrics office, which is managed by the Army.
Ideal Innovations Inc. was the incumbent contractor for the Afghan and Iraqi ABIS systems. Marton Technologies, which was partnered with the U.S. division of Japan’s NEC Corp., also bid for the contract.
Under the contract, Griaule will supply is ABIS capabilities to provide storage and matching capabilities for 50 million Iraqi biometric identities and 30 million Afghan biometric identities. The ABIS systems are for fingerprints, palmprints, face and iris images.
Griaule was founded in 2002 and has more than 4,000 customers in over 70 countries. The company’s largest accounts are in Brazil, including providing the ABIS and related biometric matching algorithms for the country’s national voting system, which has 90 million records, state police, and nationwide bank.
The protest window for the award closed last Friday.
Ideal Innovations on its website says it provides the ABIS system for the Afghanistan National Security Forces, noting that the system is compatible with the U.S. DoD’s ABIS system and the FBI’s biometric identity management system. Leidos [LDOS] maintains the DoD and FBI systems.