During the second quarter earnings conference for defense contracting giant Lockheed Martin, President and CEO Jim Taiclet expressed his vision of how his company’s products will fit into a “road map” of connecting people, platforms and systems. In regard to military-related applications and products, what he called their “21st Century Warfare” concept, he said they want to keep the U.S. military from being locked into a single provider of 5G technologies and services.
“One of my goals in the first year as CEO of Lockheed Martin was to actually demonstrate the benefits of network effects to our customers using existing platforms under our 21st Century warfare concept,” the former American Tower CEO said.
The President’s recent budget request, according to Taiclet, prioritized the need to invest in technologies and capabilities to address “the great power competition” the nation faces. He said these include areas of strength within the Lockheed Martin portfolio, such as continued support for Air and Missile Defense programs, THAAD, PAC-3 and their recent next generation interceptor award, space domain initiatives, including OPIR and GPS-III satellites, and the Space Development Agency’s transport layer architecture.
“We’re open to collaborating with our industry partners that are traditional in defense and aerospace and eagerly and already successfully with some of my old counterparts and my former counterparts in telecom and tech where we’re trying to build out the Internet of Things network of the future here,” Taiclet said. The company partnered with Omnispace earlier this year in an agreement to build out a space-based 5G global network.
Another example of cross-development between industries he gave was the use of “a cell tower in the sky connecting F-35 and F-22 data lengths” via an open radio architecture provided by a U-2 aircraft. “We could add an F-18 or another aircraft, even an allied aircraft, a Eurofighter, for example, down the road,” he said.
Taiclet said they continue to see strong support from the Hill for all of their programs, which include increases for F-35, C-130, CH-53K, and UH-60 programs, and fully approved budget requests for many of our other systems.
A recent demonstration for the Pacific Command showed how space-based connectivity using their MUOS narrowband satellite communications constellation supported the Air National Guard and their new data link capability. “The Northern Edge exercise demonstrated our integrated offensive and defensive fires capability, our satellite communication links as well as the ability to adapt joint battle management concepts in real time,” he said.
The SIBRS GEO-5 satellite developed by Lockheed is the first military satellite built on an LM 2100 Combat Bus, according to Taiclet, offering a more resilient, modernized and modular space vehicle. He said the fifth Global Positioning System, or GPS-III satellite, was successfully launched this quarter and is the 31st operational GPS satellite in the constellation with significant advancements over previous GPS-based vehicles, including three-times better accuracy and improved anti-jamming capabilities.
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