Air Transport

Lockheed Martin is seeking to open a UK extension – or “node” – of its new Virginia-based Center for Innovation, to provide virtual demonstrations of how various platforms and technologies can be merged in a network-centric environment.

The move reflects Lockheed Martin’s increasing focus on its largest overseas market, which is worth around $1 billion a year – a quarter of the company’s non-US revenues, and its belief that network-centric thinking will play a major role in the UK’s defence and domestic security policy.

The facility would be linked to the US centre and would likely be based at Lockheed Martin’s Havant site or at Stasys, the Farnham-based network communications technology and consultancy firm which Lockheed Martin bought for an undisclosed sum late last year. It could be up and running within “12 to 18 months”, says Ian Stopps, chief executive of Lockheed Martin UK.

Lockheed Martin opened its 4,600m² (50,000ft²) Center for Innovation in Suffolk, Virginia in April. The centre – which the company says is the first of its kind in the industry – allows military and other customers to integrate Lockheed products with other technologies and platforms virtually and “assess and experiment with new operational concepts and capabilities”.

Although Stopps says there would be some export restrictions to overcome before UK customers could be given access to the centre, he does not expect this to be a major hurdle. “What we are trying to do is get away from the idea of just selling widgets and really doing some big thinking,” he says. “The main preoccupation of our customers is ‘how can we create effect?’ and ‘Do we need more platforms or can we connect what we’ve got better?’.”

MURDO MORRISON/LONDON