MELLS guided missile for the German Infantry

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  February 9, 2018 | International, Aerospace

  Lockheed Martin Invites Innovators and Entrepreneurs to Join the Next Space Age with 'Open Space' Satellite Innovation Project

  Company Releases Satellite Specs; Offers New Opportunities to Aspiring Space Technologists SUNNYVALE, Calif., Feb. 8, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- For the first time, Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) has publicly released specifications for its satellite platforms with the goal of offering new opportunities for collaboration to companies aspiring to send innovative technologies to space. As part of a new satellite innovation initiative called Lockheed Martin Open Space, and building on expertise from the more than 800 satellites Lockheed Martin has produced, the company is publishing technical details about the payload accommodation information for its flagship LM 2100 satellite platform, its LM 400 small satellite, and two variants of its new LM 50 nanosat series. In an event yesterday in Silicon Valley, Lockheed Martin invited start-ups, researchers and established companies alike to propose technologies that could help solve some of today's most pressing challenges in space. With numerous launches and hosted payload slots on the docket, the company is looking to collaborate with a new generation of companies to find opportunities to put innovations in orbit and beyond. "Our goal with Lockheed Martin Open Space is twofold: first, to help more companies and innovators do amazing things in space, and second, to create new avenues for collaboration so we can move faster to tackle our customers' most pressing challenges," said Rick Ambrose, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space. "We're not just offering launch slots, we're ready to help new companies integrate their groundbreaking technologies with powerful satellite platforms. We believe there's significant untapped potential out there waiting to be unleashed." The company is looking for non-proprietary technologies that will help protect, connect and inspire the world. Potential applications include helping first responders address crises faster, studying the environment, creating ultra-high-capacity communications links and adapting low-cost commercial technology to the punishing environments of space. Interested companies or individuals can download the payload accommodation specifications at www.lockheedmartin.com/openspace and submit their concepts online. The submission page will be open from now through May 11. A team of Lockheed Martin experts will review each submission and follow up to discuss opportunities and provide feedback to submitters. "We're ready to explore and collaborate on new opportunities, and we're challenging the best and brightest to join us," said Ambrose. "Space isn't just a place to go. It's a place to do. So let's get new innovators plugged in to tomorrow's space opportunities. Let's collaborate on the country's toughest challenges. Let's do great things in space together." The venerable LM 2100 is the foundation for more than 40 satellites in orbit today, including weather, missile warning and commercial communications satellites. The LM 400 is a reconfigurable bus that can go to LEO and GEO orbits and can be delivered as quickly as 24 months from order. The LM 50 is a small but powerful satellite series that can host a wide array of remote sensing, communications and scientific payloads. For more information about Lockheed Martin's family of satellites visit www.lockheedmartin.com/satellites. https://news.lockheedmartin.com/2018-02-08-Lockheed-Martin-Invites-Innovators-and-Entrepreneurs-to-Join-the-Next-Space-Age-with-Open-Space-Satellite-Innovation-Project

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  August 3, 2023 | International, Security

  Pentagon CIO pushes defense agencies to tap $9 billion cloud contract

  The Pentagon in December 2022 selected Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Oracle for its Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability, or JWCC.

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  June 11, 2018 | International, Naval

  The U.S. Navy Is Developing Mothership Drones for Coastal Defense

  By Patrick Tucker, The service is looking to accelerate the way it buys, builds and drills drones and robotic ships. The U.S. Navy and researchers from Florida Atlantic University are developing robotic boats that can launch aerial and sub drones to protect U.S. coastal waters. “Our focus will be on developing a multi-vehicle system that can safely and reliably navigate coastal waters with a high level of autonomy while performing assigned tasks,” Manhar Dhanak, director of SeaTech, the Institute for Ocean and Systems Engineering in FAU's Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering, said in a press release. The AU researchers will develop new software tools for better sensing and collision avoidance as well as to allow the ship “to serve as a docking station” and power sub and air drones that latch onto it, according to a statement from the University. One aspect of the effort, developing software to help the surface vessel obtain a clear picture not just of obstacles to avoid but also friendly and hostile elements in the area, to help it better plan routes and paths for different missions. It's an example of the types of prototypes that will become more common, according to a Navy roadmap for the development and acquisition of autonomous systems. This Strategic Roadmap for Unmanned Systems, which began circulating around the Pentagon last year, has not yet been released. But a predecisional copy obtained by Defense One shows that the Navy is pushing to develop and buy its drones faster, integrate them more aggressively in exercises and other activity, and work more closely with universities and other non-traditional research partners particularly in the design of new prototypes. The Navy's research into unmanned weapons goes back to World War I research into flying munitions and torpedos. The term “drone” was coined in the 1930s by Cmdr. Delmar Fahrney, who was in charge of Navy research into radio-controlled aircraft. More recently, the Navy has sought to incorporate ever-higher levels of autonomy into drills and activity. In 2014, the service ran a dramatic experiment that showed that a swarm of 13 autonomous roboticized boats might help defend a warship. The Navy has also developed (and plans to soon deploy) the Sea Hunter, an unmanned ship that can guide itself on the open water while obeying international maritime laws. Former Defense Undersecretary Bob Work speculated that the Sea Hunter could be armed with ballistic missiles. “We might be able to put a six-pack or a four-pack of missiles on them. Now, imagine 50 of these distributed and operating together under the hands of a flotilla commander,” Work said at an event sponsored by CNAS. “This is going to be a Navy unlike any navy in history, a human-machine collaborative battle fleet that will confound our enemies. The Navy is experimenting with a widening menagerie of novel aerial drones, such as a tube-launched rotary-wing drone called the Nomad, which was launched off of the destroyer Pinckney in2016. Another is the hybrid flying-swimming Glider, a drone that can deploy from a plane, fly along the surface of the water, and then submerge to a depth of 200 meters. Flight-testing for a new version of Glider is scheduled for later this year, and the Naval Research Laboratory expects to a full demonstration in 2019. The new Navy roadmap argues that the service's adoption of unmanned and robotic capabilities must move far more quickly than it buys human-operated planes, boats, and ships. It outlines steps to accelerate their building, buying and deploying. One key is moving away from a “platform-centric model” — think big, expensive ships that only serve one role. Instead, envision small, cheap robots that can be robustly networked and easily configured to new tasks. “The Navy must evolve from today's platform-centric, uncontested-environment [unmanned systems] operating concept to the concept of a platform-agnostic force,” it says. “A cross-domain, distributed, netted, self-healing, highly survivable, and collaborative communications network made of manned and unmanned nodes will enable multi-domain communications. These nodes will fuse big data to interpret the environment, share relevant information, and introduce increased risk, uncertainty, and mistrust in the adversary's systems.” Marcus Weisgerber contributed to this post. https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2018/06/us-navy-developing-mothership-drones-coastal-defense/148696/