Innovative Installation Security Pilot at Fort Benning Receives Industry Award
Now, people and organizations are taking notice of the innovative approach.
Last month, AFCEA International presented Lt. Col. Matthew Einhorn of Product Manager Force Protection Systems (PdM FPS) with its prestigious Fed ID 2026 Best Operational Success Award, recognizing the outstanding success of the pilot program.
Einhorn praised the team for earning the award.
“Today, two very dedicated and talented teams are recognized for just a few short months of exceptional teamwork,” said Einhorn. “However, it was the teams nurturing and innovating their individual program over many years that set the conditions to successfully connect the two programs in a way that provide such drastic improvements over operating them separately.”
PdM FPS and Product Manager Biometrics (PdM Biometrics), offices of Project Manager Terrestrial Sensors (PM TS), planned and executed the pilot at the request of the Army’s Office of the Provost Marshal General (OPMG). The pilot integrates AIE, an advanced access control and vetting system, and DoW ABIS, the Army’s authoritative biometric data repository.
“At the heart of this pilot, we integrated two existing systems, significantly improving the accuracy and efficiency of a manual system,” Einhorn said. “Streamlining data access, like we did with this pilot, is not just the future of force protection but will be required to keep any system relevant in the Army’s fast-paced data driven environment.”
Improvements to the foreign national vetting process happened immediately after the pilot launch. While the legacy vetting approach took up to 14 days and could be subject to sophisticated identity fraud, the pilot processes foreign nationals at an average of seven minutes and 16 seconds and is secure from fraud.
“During the first four months of operations, the AIE-DoW ABIS connection successfully vetted hundreds of foreign nationals, denied access to dozens of high-risk individuals, and directly facilitated the apprehension of persons of concern,” Einhorn said.
Beyond improving processing speed and identifying potential threats, the pilot enhanced interagency collaboration. With the pilot leveraging the reliable DoW ABIS biometric database, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responds more rapidly to flagged foreign nationals.
Matt Dillon, Fort Benning Access Control Branch Chief, discussed how system dependability increased collaboration shortly after the pilot began.
"DHS has been responding since they know we are using biometrics,” said Dillon. “They know the person we have is really that person.”
Lessons learned from the pilot will be leveraged in future efforts to improve installation security.
“This pilot demonstrated two key features that AIE is already pursuing,” Einhorn said. “First, connecting to existing databases to reduce processing time and second, using biometers to improve identification accuracy and throughput at entry control points.”
Legal Disclaimer:
EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
