Lockheed Martin puts finger on print system

Lockheed Martin Corp. won a $3.6 million contract from the Military Entrance Processing Command for fingerprinting technology that enables background checks of prospective military recruits.

Under the contract, Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Md., will maintain and enhance fingerprinting hardware and software, and provide help-desk support to the joint service command, headquartered in North Chicago.

With the technology, the command can fingerprint candidates, forward the prints to the Office of Personnel Management and FBI for a background check and receive results within 24 hours. Previous methods included a manual approach that required several weeks to perform.

In 1999, Lockheed Martin won the original contract to deploy 65 Electronic Fingerprint Capture Stations and a Fingerprint Interface Server, enabling the command to automate the process.

Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Md., which has about 135,000 employees worldwide and reported annual sales of $37.2 billion in fiscal 2005, ranks No. 1 on Washington Technology's 2005 Top 100 list, which measures federal contracting revenue. The 2006 Top 100 list will be released May 15.