The US Coast Guard has issued a request for information seeking iOS-compatible biometric capture devices for its Biometrics at Sea System, the program that lets boarding teams verify the identities of people encountered during interdictions, boardings, and other at-sea operations. The notice asks industry to identify handheld devices that work within Apple’s iOS ecosystem and can operate in the disconnected, low-bandwidth conditions of maritime operations.
The Biometrics at Sea System, known as BASS, collects fingerprints, iris scans, facial images, and contextual photographs of scars, marks, and tattoos, along with biographic data, and submits them to DHS enterprise systems for identity checks that inform law enforcement decisions. Because cutters often operate beyond reliable network coverage, the system performs local watchlist screening on the collection device itself, so a boarding team can receive an immediate result without a live connection to shore databases.
The current fielded hardware is the JavelinXL, an Android-based multimodal device that captures four-finger slap prints, dual-iris scans, facial imagery, and voice data. The new request explores whether the Coast Guard can diversify the hardware available for the same operational environment by identifying devices compatible with iOS, a notable shift given the Android basis of the existing tool. The underlying biometric requirements, including rapid multimodal capture and on-device watchlist matching in disconnected conditions, remain the constant the agency is designing around.
The request follows recent modernization of the program. The Coast Guard awarded an indefinite-delivery contract to Parsons Corporation’s InCadence Strategic Solutions to modernize BASS, covering additional biometric devices, software and hardware sustainment, integration, and cybersecurity work. The iOS device inquiry sits alongside that modernization, probing the supplier market for hardware options rather than initiating a procurement.
The work also connects to a wider federal effort to unify biometric infrastructure. DHS has sought industry input on an enterprise-wide biometric matching platform that names the Coast Guard among the components it would serve, which would put at-sea collections into the same matching layer used across CBP, ICE, and TSA.
The Coast Guard’s notice is a market survey, gathering information on available iOS-compatible hardware before any decision on whether to field it.
Sources: FBO Daily, GlobeNewswire
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By Ali Nassar-Smith
