Defence Business: Lockheed Martin launches new cyber centres | ADM Dec 2011 / Jan 2012

Julian Kerr | Gaithersburg, Owego and Fort Worth

The peaceful exterior of a sleek low-rise building in suburban Gaithersburg, Maryland, belies the high-tech cyber war being waged within between those determined to compromise the IT networks of one of the world’s biggest defence contractors, and those tasked with preventing this.

Lockheed Martin’s two-year-old NextGen Cyber Innovation and Technology Centre (NexGen) is the model for a similar Lockheed Martin centre, on a much smaller scale, which began operations in Canberra in mid-November and will have its formal opening in March.

A third NexGen facility was scheduled to be opened in the UK in December. All three NexGen centres together support a global Lockheed Martin cyber innovation test range that is utilised in developing products and technologies designed to enhance the company’s own and customers’ cyber security, IT system reliability, and critical infrastructure resilience.

This is done in part by leveraging existing Lockheed Martin and partner capabilities and driving rapid prototyping and testing through the simulation of customers’ environments.

Separately and deep within the Gaithersburg building, behind an array of security doors with access only by retinal scans, an undisclosed number of what Lockheed Martin describes as the best and the brightest of IT analysts work within the company’s Security Intelligence Centre (SIC).

This, supported by a similar fully-integrated centre opened in Denver in 2010, serves as Lockheed Martin’s focal point for computer network defence, including the detection and identification of all information security incidents, and appropriate responses.

“As the biggest US defence contractor we’re being targeted every day – by individuals, by nation state adversaries, and increasingly, by well-funded criminal networks who are endlessly persistent and probably sell information to other attackers,” SIC head Mike Gordon said.

The company provides a substantial target – 145,000 managed desktops that generate 30 million emails and 300 million web requests per day.

Cyber intelligence analysts examine attacks at a macro level and break them into phases in what Gordon describes as a cyber kill chain, identifying patterns of persistent campaigns spanning multiple attacks, and implementing both defensive and offensive strategies.

Activity patterns influenced by factors such as timezones, the time of the year and calendar events play an important role in identifying adversaries – activity from China registers a big uptick before a national holiday.

“Rather than simply denying access it’s better to disrupt, degrade and deceive adversaries, so they don’t know where they have failed,” comments Gordon. “When we understand an adversary we’re better placed to ascertain where there’s a gap and enhance resilience.”

In the midst of his briefing in a well-appointed boardroom, Gordon pressed a button and a motorised wall folded into the ceiling to reveal the centre’s 24-hour operations area – about two dozen analysts monitoring worldwide communications and servers, with floor to ceiling screens displaying network status and the codenames of major adversaries. Tellingly, a row of digital clocks showing times in various US cities also displayed the times in Beijing and Moscow.

In another area, ranks of mobile phone, PDAs, laptops and other computer equipment were under test; according to Gordon “two of just about everything on the planet”.

Lockheed Martin is a member of the Defence Information Exchange, a group of about 50 US defence contractors and the UK Aerospace and Defence Manufacturing Information Exchange, who collaborate in real time on cyber threats. The same collaboration is anticipated between the Australian NexGen centre, domestic defence companies and Defence.

Lockheed has already provided cyber security solutions to the Australian Tax Office and is clearly keen to market its cyber expertise to Defence – in the US it is working on cyber issues with the Department of Homeland Security and provides network security for all US Air Force networks in the Washington region. In the UK the company is involved in classified government programs.

Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin is confident there will be no delays in the delivery of the RAAF’s first 14 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (JSF), but a team of Australian experts has been in Fort Worth checking the basis for this optimism.

Keith Knotts, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Business Development Manager for Australia and Canada, told Australian journalists that the week-long visit by the DMO team in late October was “a scheduled risk assessment”.

True, but it was certainly not routine. The group’s presence in Fort Worth followed Defence Minister Stephen Smith’s decision three months earlier to order an independent review of the JSF program because he was not prepared to accept any gap in Australia’s air combat capability.

The judgment that he said the government would make in 2012 “in relation to air combat capability arrangements” will clearly be driven as much by the team’s conclusions, driven by Schedule Compliance Risk Assessment methodology, as by the manufacturer’s reassurances.

Informed sources told ADM that in addition to interviewing a range of Lockheed Martin program executives, the Australians had been granted access to material from the US Government’s ongoing JSF Technical Baseline Review and would be reporting back to Smith before the end of the year.

The Minister’s initial focus is on the manufacturer’s ability to deliver on schedule to the RAAF the first 14 of what is anticipated will eventually be a 100-strong fleet of conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) JSFs. The first two aircraft are scheduled for delivery in the US in 2014 with the other 12 due by 2017, after which all 14 will fly to Williamtown to provide an Initial Operating Capability (IOC) by 2018.

The speedy transition from arrival to IOC stems from the RAAF’s ability to leverage off the USAF’s operational test and evaluation program.

Should there be any official doubts about the delivery schedule, the obvious option, as Smith pointed out in July, would be to fill the capability gap by boosting the RAAF’s fleet of F/A-18F Super Hornets beyond the 24 now in-country.

However, Knotts was adamant that only a 5th Generation aircraft such as the JSF could survive in future air combat against existing and future threats such as the SA-20 Gargoyle and HQ-9 Hong-qi surface to air missiles, Sukhoi’s stealthy PAK-FA air superiority fighter, and China’s Chengdu J-20.

“Why do you think the Libyan SAMS were taken out by Tomahawks and not air strikes?” he commented. “The environment would simply have been too dangerous for anything but fifth-generation platforms.”

Three JSFs a month are now rolling off the Fort Worth production line and the addition of two extra bays now under construction will increase production to four aircraft a month from June 2012. Output will eventual reach one aircraft a day, by when the current 2,000-strong production force will have grown to 3,500.

Notwithstanding the sophistication of the production process, mistakes do happen – a jack supporting the port wing of the first of an anticipated 85 JSFs for the Dutch air force was found to be two inches off level, resulting in a large “aircraft impounded” sign and an armed guard beside the construction rig pending notification of the customer and rectification.

As of early November, 18 aircraft from the System Development and Demonstration phase of the program were undergoing extensive flight tests, some of which were involving three consecutive sorties with the engine kept running between each sortie.

The first two Australian aircraft will be produced as part of Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) Lot 6, with four in LRIP 8 and eight in LRIP 9. LRIP 4 (32 aircraft) is now in assembly and long lead funding for LRIP 5 (35 aircraft) and LRIP 6 (38 aircraft) has been secured from the US government.

The first tranche of Australian JSFs will be delivered to Block 2B (initial warfighting) standard. An in-country software upgrade to Block3F (advanced warfighting) standard is anticipated prior to IOC.

Some apparent differences of opinion have become apparent about sustainment in-country. Following the signature in June 2010 of a Memorandum of Understanding between Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems Australia, a BAES press release said Lockheed Martin had selected BAE Systems Australia as its Australian partner for readiness and sustainment support for the JSF.

Yet Lockheed Martin’s Knotts said in Fort Worth that in-country support and sustainment in Australia would be subject to competition, notwithstanding the MOU.

“We’re after best value for money; if a company already has facilities in place it will be in a strong position,” he added, which should be of some comfort to BAES.

BAE Systems’ Dan Schroter said the company regarded the MOU more as a relationship document which facilitated a range of discussions between the two parties.

JSF sustainment

The New Air Combat Capability program office had requested “open and transparent” competition for JSF support and sustainment work and was considering building its own facility at RAAF Williamtown, Schroter said. BAE Systems was happy to compete for the work and to utilise this facility, should it be built.

Support in some respects will be less demanding than for less sophisticated platforms. The benchmark is 98 per cent mission reliability, and 98 per cent of line-replaceable components are located behind removable panels, next to the skin of the aircraft.

Sustainment will be via a performance-based agreement “tailored for national aspirations”. Lockheed says it is considering three or four regional spares warehouses but has yet to decide where these will be located. Concerns about supply during a time of tension could see Australia investing in a buffer stock of essentials as a sovereign requirement.

Meanwhile pilots from Australia and the seven other international partners in the JSF program are continuing to refine their tactics and concepts of operations at Eglin air force base utilising eight JSF cockpit simulators and four desktop simulations that are loaded with Block 3 software.

Pilots pit the JSF against USAF and other international colleagues “flying” a variety of adversary aircraft. Stealthy or non-stealthy modes can be selected at the throw of a switch, as can computer-generated threats.

Pending the arrival of the JSFs, the RAAF’s Super and “classic” Hornets will soon be receiving an enhancement to their ground attack capability with the first delivery to Australia of Lockheed Martin-assembled Paveway II Plus GBU10 2,000lb laser guided bombs.

An upgrade to the legacy in-service Paveway II, the Plus variant utilises an enhanced laser guidance package to provide a 50 per cent improvement in CEP (circular error probability). Although no further details were given, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control executive Eric Wasson described the new guidance package as providing a mean point of impact “virtually on top of the target”.

No upgrades or modifications to aircraft, ground handling equipment or logistics support are required to operate the Paveway II Plus, but any upgrade to existing stocks of Paveway II – whose production has now terminated – would probably have to be carried out in the US, Wasson said.

Wesson also disclosed that the RAAF was considering the possible acquisition for its F/A-18Fs of the company’s Infrared Search and Track (IRST) sensor system.

This augments the ability of aircrew to search, track and engage targets in dense threat environments and at extended ranges, with its data either being used alone or combined with other sensor data to further enhance situational awareness.

IRST systems have already logged more than 200,000 hours on US Navy F-14Ds. Lockheed Martin has been subcontracted by Boeing to supply the systems to the USN’s Super Hornets and USAF F-15Cs and IOC for the USN Super Hornets is expected in 2016.

DAGR

Another boost to airborne firepower seems likely with the disclosure that Lockheed Martin expects to conclude negotiations early in 2012 with the launch customer for its DAGR guided rocket.

DAGR involves fitting a Lockheed Martin-developed laser-guided seeker nose section to a standard 70mm unguided rocket. A minor modification is also made to the airfoil at the rear of the rocket to improve its aerodynamics.

In test firings at a range of 4.5 kilometres DAGR has consistently hit within one metre of the aiming point. In practical terms, according to Lockheed Martin, this equates to a single DAGR launched at a target five kilometres distant performing a task that would otherwise require 2,000 unguided rockets.

DAGR readily integrates with all platforms deploying the AGM-114A Hellfire including Apache, Kiowa, Little Bird and Tiger helicopters as well as UAVs.

Given that it offers functionality comparable to the Hellfire at a fraction of the cost, including lock-on-before-launch, lock-on after-launch, target location handoff and enhanced built-in test, its first sale has been a surprisingly long time in coming.

Lockheed Martin says that a very large production order is anticipated, leading to speculation that the launch customer will be the US Army.

Helicopters

At the customer’s request, delivery of the first two of the 24 Lockheed Martin/Sikorsky MH-60R combat helicopters on order for the Royal Australian Navy will be expedited from mid-2014 to December 2013, according to George Barton, the company’s director of naval helicopter programs. Seven more will be delivered in 2014, seven in 2015, and the final eight in 2016.

Anticipated signature of the acquisition contract for the 24 MH-60Rs by the end of 2011would be followed three months’ later by agreement on Australian Industry Capability work packages, Barton said. The through life support contract would be signed in 2013.

An Australian team was to discuss development options at Lockheed Martin’s Owego, New York, facility in November, Barton disclosed. The first Australian aircraft would include a point and click cockpit interface upgrade, while a major enhancement to the computer systems from the third aircraft onwards would ready the Australian MH-60Rs for future upgrades.

These would be included in the acquisition contract up to 2018 after which a new agreement would be required, Barton said, although it was clear that Australia had no intention of deviating from the US Navy MH-60R baseline.

JLTV

Scott Greene, Vice-President of Ground Vehicles, was confident that the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) program would survive despite cost pressures which have led to a cost cap by the US Army of just over US$200,000 per vehicle – about US$150,000 less than what had been originally intended.

To keep costs below the cap, Lockheed Martin will now offer enhanced armour protection as an option and adopt a “scalable” approach to the vehicle’s command and control system. Greene declined to comment on whether the pared-down vehicle would meet Australian requirements.

An Americanised variant of Patria’s 8x8 multi-role AMV that is being offered by Lockheed Martin for the US Marine Corps’ next-generation medium armoured vehicle requirement could, according to Kathryn Hasse, JLTV program leader, be a possible contender for Australia’s Land 400 (Future Combat Vehicle) program.

Although the company is currently teaming with Patria only in the US, Hesse said she would be having long-range discussions with the European company about Land 400.

The variant proposed for the US Marine Corps does not have a turret, but Hesse said the vehicle’s modular design allows the deck plate to be removed and a choice of at least 30 different weapons to be dropped in.  

Disclaimer: Julian Kerr travelled to the US as a guest of Lockheed Martin.