The World’s Largest Defense Contractor Is Putting Its Money Into These New Technologies

Lockheed Martin's concept art reflects its belief in the potential for directed-energy weapons against unmanned systems. (Lockheed Martin)

C4ISRNet: Inside the ‘foundational’ future technologies of the world’s largest defense company

WASHINGTON ― Lockheed Martin is the world’s largest defense contractor, a company with more than $47 billion in revenue in 2016. But if the company intends to stay relevant, it needs to develop new capabilities ― and its top technology expert has identified the key pots of money in which he wants to invest.

Keoki Jackson, Lockheed’s chief technology officer, laid out to reporters the “foundational” technologies in which his firm will be investing over the next two to three decades when he spoke at an Oct. 11 roundtable.

The technologies fall into three broad categories, with the first being what Jackson called “strategic technology thread areas,” areas that “go across pretty much anything Lockheed Martin will do, all these domains whether from undersea to outer space.”

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WNU Editor: In short, Lockheed Martin is focusing on this .... autonomy, directed energy, signal processing and communications, sensor technology and exploitation, hypersonic systems, and advanced cybersecurity.