Lockheed Martin Australia (LMA) has announced contracts with five Australian SMEs to explore Australian sovereign technologies that may be incorporated into the Air 6500 system solution.
LMA, together with SMEs Consilium Technology, Consunet, Shoal, Silentium Defence and Ultra, will investigate and develop capabilities that can be integrated into an open architecture framework to support 5th generation concepts and application development.
A key focus of the SMEs will be to explore technologies ranging from electronic warfare battle management, contested communications, cyber protection, advanced systems engineering and passive sensing.
“Over the past four years, the LMA Air 6500 team has been steadily adding to our sovereign presence and expanding our Australian team,” Steve Froelich, Lockheed Martin Australia Air 6500 Program Executive, said. “Critical to that effort has been our focus on proactively engaging and establishing partnerships with Australian industry to identify and invest in ‘best of breed’ local capabilities to deliver a truly sovereign capability solution for Australia.”
LMA has conducted roadshows in every capital city and across large regional centres in Australia, and due to COVID-19 restrictions, most recently held a virtual industry session with NZ’s defence industry to investigate partnerships for Air 6500.
From these engagements LMA has identified and validated more than 130 Australian SMEs as potential industry partners with technologies that could be incorporated into the program.
“Consilium Technology is excited by this terrific opportunity to contribute to this major defence program that will strengthen Australia’s national security,” Nick Cooper, Consilium Technology’s chief information officer, said. “We are pleased to be collaborating with Lockheed Martin Australia to explore and create advanced technologies that will support our nation’s ability to protect against future threats.”