Lockheed Martin opens biometric testing center in West Virginia

You could see it coming: Defense contractor behemoth Lockheed Martin is getting into full-scale testing of biometric applications. The company announced this past week that it has founded its Biometric Experimentation and Advanced Concepts (BEACON) center in White Hall, West Virginia, the purpose of which will be to test and develop biometric solutions.

SecurityInfoWatch reports that the company’s BEACON center occupies a 6,000-square-foot facility and is staffed by experts who will collaborate with vendors and academia to test out biometric devices, especially those aimed at the security market. According to Lockheed, the facility will tie in with its other operations, including their CMMI biometrics operations in Florida, the Center for Innovation in Suffolk, Virginia, and the Draper Labs in Utah.

According to Carlaine Blizzard, vice president of Secure Enterprise Solutions, Lockheed Martin Transportation and Security Solutions, the Morgantown, West Virginia-based center will also work with the Center for Identification Technology Research(CITeR).

We have noticed Lockheed Martin’s interest in biometrics for a while now. The company was a chief developer of the FBI’s AFIS system and has worked on the HSDP-12/FIPS 201 initiative for unified government access control.

Judy Marks, president of Lockheed Martin Transportation and Security Solutions, said that “Biometric technology offers great promise for the future, especially in initiatives that are important to the security of our nation…. Research and development are key to realizing this type of technology’s full potential.”