The U.S. Department of Defense has issued a request for information asking for industry comments on using the Common Access Card for physical access control.

Defense Department officials use the CAC for access to computer networks and as a flash badge, but not for physical access control. The agency will be replacing its current credentials with new ones that meet the FIPS 201 standard and contain a contactless interface for physical access control.

DOD also wants to issue an “alternative smart card” for personnel not eligible to receive a CAC that would contain much of the same information and be used for physical and logical access.

The request for information asks a wide range of questions from proposals for developing and integrating an alternative card to be issued for physical access control systems for providing some or all of the chip-based authentication options as the PIV compliant CAC to asking for capabilities for authenticating credentials.

The request was released on Nov. 20 and vendor responses are due by Dec. 20.

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