Lockheed Martin Australia has been selected as one of two primes to participate in the Royal Australian Air Force’s AIR6500 Phase 1 Project (AIR6500-1) to provide the Australian Defense Force (ADF) with a Joint Air Battle Management System that will form the architecture at the core of the ADF’s future Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) capability.
This will provide greater situational awareness and defense against increasingly advanced air and missile threats, as well as give the ADF increased levels of interoperability with coalition partners.
“[This] announcement marks the next step in AIR6500-1 to work in partnership with the Australian Defense Force and industry partners to support the Royal Australian Air Force’s vision to transform the Air Force into a next-gen-enabled force through delivering a sovereign highly advanced Joint Air Battle Management System to protect Australia’s security,” said Joe North, Chief Executive Lockheed Martin Australia and New Zealand.
“Since 2016, we have been highly committed to supporting the AIR6500-1 project. Our Lockheed Martin Australia AIR6500-1 team has steadily grown over this time to over 80 Australians in Adelaide, Canberra and Williamtown.
“Critical to that effort has been our focus on proactively engaging and establishing important partnerships with Australian industry to identify and invest in ‘best of breed’ local capabilities to deliver a truly sovereign capability solution for Australia.”
Lockheed Martin Australia will continue partnering with industry, academia and government to develop, integrate, build, and sustain future technologies that can be integrated into an open architecture framework to support AIR6500-1. This approach will ensure innovative small to medium Australian high-tech businesses remain at the core of shaping Australia’s future defense capabilities.
