Login
iscover
Lockheed Martin Australia has recently invested in a series of online engagement sessions with industry in Australia and New Zealand to discuss development and collaboration opportunities for next-gen technologies across defence multi-domains to support Australia’s future security needs.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
The online industry sessions covered a range of topics including integrated air and missile defence, battle management systems, strike weapons, precision fires, and close combat systems and sensors.
These focused engagement sessions were successful in our aim of making it easier and more accessible for Australian industry to engage with Lockheed Martin Australia.
Joe North, chief executive Lockheed Martin Australia and New Zealand, said Lockheed Martin Australia is committed to shaping Australia’s future defence force with smarter, fifth-generation technologies that meet the needs of our customers.
"Our approach is to work hand in glove with small to medium Australian enterprises to discover and evolve the best of breed technology and to build that capability for Australia and the global customers. By partnering with industry, we provide the opportunity to showcase their technology on the world stage and with it the potential for industry to access global supply chain," North explained.
Lockheed Martin Australia actively supports Australian defence industry capability through the employment of a highly-skilled sovereign workforce of over 1,000 people across the country who work alongside its customers in the delivery, integration and sustainment of advanced technology solutions.
Further, Lockheed Martin Australia programs and projects directly support nearly 5,000 Australian jobs including many in the advanced manufacturing and high technology industries that provide Australia with a critical sovereign capability.
North added, "We’re absolutely committed to identifying industry partners with the ability to develop, integrate, build, supply and maintain future technologies and capabilities within Australia and New Zealand to ensure the Australian Defence Force remains at the forefront of the best technology and achieves its vision for a fifth-generation Air Force."
Christopher Hess, Lockheed Martin Australia’s head of industrial development, leads the Office of Australian Industrial Participation (OAIP), which is a dedicated team that researches local industry capabilities and matches these with identified business opportunities for Australian companies, both locally and globally.
"Lockheed Martin Australia’s role is to build SMEs’ capability. By partnering with state and territory governments and our industry association networks to identify and target world-class capability we can together nurture Australian companies, helping them to be more globally competitive," Hess said.
He added, "We are proud of our success to date, with Australian SMEs and research organisations winning nearly two-thirds of the export opportunities we have identified, demonstrating the strength and depth of Australia’s defence industry.
"The virtual industry engagement sessions in Australia and New Zealand were an immense success, drawing 230 industry attendees. We are proud of partnering with hundreds of Australian companies across our direct suppliers and their tiered partners to deliver sovereign industrial capability to the Australian government across air, sea, land and space domains."
Headquartered in Canberra, Lockheed Martin Australia is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation. The company employs more than 1,000 people in Australia working on a wide range of major programs spanning the aerospace, defence and civil sectors.
Stephen Kuper
Steve has an extensive career across government, defence industry and advocacy, having previously worked for cabinet ministers at both Federal and State levels.
