An automated identification system for fingerprints developed by Lockheed Martin Corporation has enabled the Federal Bureau of Investigation to process more than 100 million print searches over the past six years.

The FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) consists of three principal components: The Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), an Interstate Identification Index segment, and an Identification, Tasking, and Networking segment. Lockheed Martin's AFIS was originally produced for the FBI in 1999 and serves as a core component of IAFIS, which reached the milestone in late May.

Today more than 50 million fingerprint records identifying individuals with a criminal history are maintained by the FBI on the integrated system. Before IAFIS was available to law enforcement agencies, these requests normally took weeks or even months to process. The system now processes the same information in minutes.

The IAFIS is a national fingerprint and criminal history system that provides automated fingerprint search capabilities, latent searching capability, electronic image storage, criminal history inquiries, and electronic exchange of fingerprints, mug shots, and responses. Lockheed Martin has had a ten-year partnership with the FBI for the AFIS, and five-year support partnership for the remaining segments of IAFIS.

Lockheed Martin's Information Technology unit provides technical service support to the FBI for IAFIS and other FBI programs. The company was recently competitively awarded System of Services contracts valued at $500M, permitting its continued support through September 2011. Work is performed primarily at the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division in Clarksburg, W.Va.

Under these contracts Lockheed Martin provides operations, maintenance and technical refreshment services to help the agency process over 1.5 million fingerprint transactions each month. The combined transaction volume exceeds 100 million transactions per month across all the supported FBI/CJIS systems.

Linda Gooden, president of Lockheed Martin Information Technology, said, "The partnership between the highly technical staffs of the FBI/CJIS and Lockheed Martin have resulted in timely, relevant criminal justice information for all qualified law enforcement agencies. This is an important milestone for the FBI, and we are proud to support the FBI to make America a safer place for its citizens."

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin employs about 130,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture and integration of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2004 sales of $35.5 billion.

For additional information, visit our website:

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/

SOURCE: Lockheed Martin Corporation