Unisys to field DNA index system for FBI

Unisys Corp. will deploy a next-generation DNA index system for the FBI through a two-year, $11 million contract.

Unisys of Blue Bell, Pa., will design and develop software, oversee deployment, and furnish operations and maintenance support for the Next-Generation Combined DNA Index System.

If all options are exercised, the contract could be worth $50 million, the company said.

FBI laboratory's Combined DNA Index System allows federal, state and local labs to share and compare profiles, helping law enforcement officials link convicted offenders to violent crimes. Unisys' solution uses a sophisticated search engine to accelerate the matching process.

Unisys' partners on the project are the University of Tennessee's Laboratory of Information Technologies, IBM Corp., University of Cincinnati, and iSYS LLC.

There are 178 national labs participating in the DNA index system, which has a database of 3.7 million offender profiles and 150,000 forensic profiles

Unisys will deploy its indexing solution to all U.S. labs and to crime labs in 26 countries.

Unisys, which has more than 36,000 employees and had annual sales of $5.8 billion in fiscal 2005, ranks No. 20 on Washington Technology's 2006 Top 100 list of the largest federal IT contractors.