The Defense Department in September expects to begin soliciting for the next increment of its authoritative biometric database, which will transition to the cloud and add new capabilities, a department official said on Tuesday.
The Request for Proposals (RFP) for the Biometric Enabling Capability (BEC) Increment 1 will include storage and matching of facial images, both photos and video, fingerprints, irises, palm prints, latent prints, voice and multi-modal biometric fusion matching capabilities, Will Graves, the chief engineer for Program Management DoD Biometrics, said during a virtual presentation as part of the annual AFCEA Federal Identity Forum.
A slide presentation used by Graves also showed that DNA reference identification will also be part of BEC Increment 1.
BEC refers to the DoD Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS), which was fielded in 2009 to help contend with asymmetric threats posed by known and suspected terrorists and enemy warfighters encountered as part of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The initial DoD ABIS quick reaction capability hosted finger and palm prints, face and iris images, latent prints, and had a fusion capability. Later, as DoD ABIS became and program of record and was called BEC Increment 0, new watchlist capabilities and server architectures were added.
Leidos [LDOS] is the contractor currently responsible for the DoD ABIS. Graves said the system uses IDEMIA’s Multi-Biometric Search Services matching engine, which includes algorithms for fingerprint and palm print identification, iris and facial recognition.
Last fall, the Army released a Request for Information and a draft performance work statement for BEC Increment 1, which will include operations and maintenance and several capabilities drops within 18-month cycles beginning with contract award.