Lockheed Martin Australia to invest $74 million in IAMD ecosystem if it wins AIR6500

Canberra-based Lockheed Martin Australia has submitted its own bid for the ADF’s Project AIR6500, Joint Air Battle Management System (JABMDS). And in parallel, the company has announced it will invest AUD$74 million to establish a National Integrated Air and Missile Defence (IAMD) Ecosystem in Australia if it wins the prime contract.

The ‘National IAMD Ecosystem’ will position Australia for a key role in the IAMD global supply chain, the company says. It will bring government, industry and academia together to create, enhance and maintain Australian capability for the long-term. And it will put the connectivity, infrastructure and process in place for organisations to gain access, bring technology and contribute for the next several decades. Designed to be fully inclusive, it will support connectivity to stakeholder nodes across Australia that will allow low-cost access and opportunity for Australian companies, regardless of location.

“In today’s strategic environment, IAMD is a critical capability and Australian industry is well-placed to be on the leading edge of global innovation and development. IAMD is a mission that spans all services and requires a high degree of integration to be effective. It is bigger than any one project, and the Ecosystem is a mechanism that will provide the enduring aspect of Australian Industry Capability (AIC) that is so often elusive,” said Warren McDonald, Chief Executive, Lockheed Martin Australia and New Zealand.

Lockheed Martin Australia’s investment will focus in two primary areas: a National IAMD Centre at an as yet-undisclosed location that will serve as a physical hub of the Ecosystem, and an R&D pipeline that will facilitate sovereign innovation through SMEs and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) activities.

The Ecosystem will support real-time feedback from warfighters, allowing Australian industry to engineer solutions for Defence that will deter and defeat current and emerging threats.

“By enhancing integration and interoperability across all warfighting domains, the IAMD Ecosystem will improve situational awareness and support rapid decision making on missions throughout the Indo-Pacific region,” said Ms Kendell Kuczma, International Business Development Director of Rotary and Missions Systems for Australia and New Zealand.

“Our investment in industry capability development as realised through technology transfer and innovation will position Australia as a leader in IAMD and create global export opportunities for local suppliers.”

The concept behind the Ecosystem is that accelerating workforce skilling and collaboration at a national level will create world-leading capabilities that generate Australian economic benefit, jobs and export opportunities. This in turn will fuel additional workforce growth that keeps the cycle going. But to fully realise the benefit, the Ecosystem needs a catalyst. This is where Lockheed Martin Australia’s investment comes into play.

“As one of the leading IAMD companies in Australia, Lockheed Martin has a responsibility to uplift industry and help build the workforce of the future. We have more than 200 skilled IAMD professionals on staff today across a range of ADF projects. By fostering closer collaboration across industry, academia and government we can create a force multiplying effect by bringing the brightest minds from across the nation to bolster national security through sovereign self-sufficiency. In the process it will solidify Australia’s role as a competitive provider of key capabilities that coalition partners will need going forward,” Mr. McDonald said.

The Ecosystem will include a combination of infrastructure and collaboration tools that bring operators and engineers together to solve problems and field capability faster. The secure digital environment will unlock powerful decision advantages via advanced tools that optimise tactics, investments and trade-offs in a setting where the ADF can ‘try before it buys’ new capabilities.