Original Date: 07/21/2003
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

Electric Boat Corporation, Quonset Point Facility’s upgraded Security Access System increased its control of access into the facility and movement of personnel within the facility. The flexibility of the system allows the company to be more responsive to change in times of increasing security requirements.

National security is an utmost consideration at Electric Boat Corporation, Quonset Point Facility (EBQP) due to the nature of its business. Great care must be taken in classifying and monitoring clearance levels, and issuing security badges to employees, vendors, and visitors at the facility. On two occasions, EBQP received the Department of Defense’s James S. Cogwell Award for outstanding security achievement, making it one of only a few facilities to have earned this honor more than once.

In 2002, EBQP updated its Security Access System to a state-of-the-art system, a stand-alone process with a minimum number of authorized users, which produces badges similar to those issued at Electric Boat Corporation, Groton Facility. To initiate the process, the Security Department enters personal information about the employee into the system (e.g., name, social security number, a unique employee identification number, security clearance level, and a digital image of the employee). The employee’s access badge is then encoded with this embedded data in addition to displaying the employee’s picture and a color-coded security clearance level indicator on the front of the badge for easy identification. The encoded data allows an employee to access the facility’s Automated Time and Attendance System and access through the Automated Access Control System, which provides access through unmanned security gates. Since the badges contain encoded data chips, proximity sensors read the data and allow passage through the gates for authorized personnel. Built-in controls can lock out unauthorized personnel and provide electronic data on employee activity. In times of heightened security requirements, the system can easily be reprogrammed to require that personnel also enter a unique password into the gate sensors along with proximity sensor validation.

The new Security Access System enabled EBQP to better utilize its security forces to provide physical security in areas other than access gates. The upgraded system provides decreased badge processing time, standardization with the Groton facility’s security system, and the flexibility to make changes in the future.

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.