Lockheed Martin Australia and Leidos Australia have signed a teaming agreement to design, develop and build advanced secure technologies to support the Royal Australian Air Force’s transformation into a next-gen-enabled force under the Joint Air Battle Management Systems Project (Air 6500-1).
Lockheed Martin Australia, one of the two primes selected to participate in the final competitive phase of Air 6500 Phase 1 Project, will work together with Leidos Australia to develop capabilities that can be integrated into an open architecture framework to support application development for Air 6500-1.
The teaming agreement will see the two companies investigate transformative software factory technologies. These innovations will be reinforced by secure coding, advanced cybersecurity infrastructure, automated monitoring, continuous deployment, network optimisation, testing and more. This work will support Lockheed Martin Australia’s open systems architecture program solution for Air 6500-1 to meet emerging and future operational needs of the Australian Defence Force (ADF).
Air 6500-1 will provide the ADF with a Joint Air Battle Management System that will form the architecture at the core of the ADF’s future Integrated Air and Missile Defence capability. This will provide greater situational awareness and defence against increasingly-advanced air and missile threats, as well as give the ADF increased levels of interoperability with coalition partners.
“Lockheed Martin Australia is very proud to team with Leidos Australia,” Lockheed Martin Australia Air 6500 Program Executive Steve Froelich said.
“For over 70 years, Lockheed Martin Australia has been delivering and sustaining cutting-edge technologies and solutions to help protect Australia’s interests across all-domains in partnership with the ADF and Australian industry.
“We are thrilled to build on those partnerships by teaming with Leidos Australia to combine our next-gen technology expertise with Leidos Australia’s tailored Information Technology services to deliver a revolutionary Air 6500-1 capability that will ensure the ADF can rapidly detect, deter and defend against evolving threats in the 21st century battlefield.
“We are highly committed to integrating ‘best of breed’ local technologies and Leidos Australia’s advanced capabilities helps us to achieve a truly sovereign solution for Australia, ensuring Australian industry remains at the heart of shaping the country’s future Joint Air Battle Management capability,” Froelich said.
“We’re proud to bring more than 25 years of local experience delivering in-country integration as part of Lockheed’s Air 6500 team,” Leidos Australia Chief Executive Paul Chase said.
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Leidos, Lockheed Martin Australia and our industry partners to work with the ADF to transform Australia’s future Joint Air Battle Management capabilities from the ground up,” Chase added.