Lockheed Martin will proof ID system for HHS

Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda, Md. won a proof-of-concept contract to implement biometric identification cards for Health and Human Services Department employees at four sites, the department announced.

Lockheed will deploy its solution under Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 at HHS headquarters in Washington, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and at two sites at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

The new biometric ID card program will enroll and credential about 1,000 HHS employees. The dollar value of the contract was not announced.

"This end-to-end identity framework allows agencies to satisfy the mandate quickly and well within cost parameters," Carlaine Blizzard, vice president, Lockheed Martin Transportation and Security Solutions, said in a news release. "In addition to our ability to deliver on time and on budget, agencies like HHS can rest assured that the technological solution itself is mature, modular and proven."

In July, GSA authorized Lockheed Martin to supply services and products under HSPD-12. Previously, the company also demonstrated its HSPD-12 solution, the BioUnique Identity Framework, in a cooperative agreement with the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

The framework consists of an enrollment system and an identity management system that are modular, scalable, encrypted and fully interoperable with legacy systems. It leverages technology that Lockheed Martin developed for the FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System and creates an unalterable audit trail for every credential, according to the company. The solution also includes a card management system, public key infrastructure and a card production system.

Lockheed Martin has about 135,000 employees and reported 2005 revenue of $37.2 billion. The company ranks No. 1 on Washington Technology's 2006 Top 100 list of the prime federal IT contractors.