09 August 2019

Lockheed Martin engages industry on Australian combat system project

by Jon Grevatt

Lockheed Martin Australia has issued a call for local companies to register interest in participating in its programme to develop the combat system for the Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN’s) fleet of next-generation Attack-class submarines.

In documents published on 6 August by the Industry Capability Network (ICN) – an independent business networking portal supported by the government – Lockheed Martin Australia said it “invites companies to register their interest in participating in the combat system programme for consideration to receive request for quotation for systems and subsystems”.

Lockheed Martin Australia has invited local companies to participate in the development of the combat system to be integrated into the Royal Australian Navy’s Attack-class submarines. (Naval Group)

Lockheed Martin Australia said the call to engage with local industry relates to the preliminary design and research and development (R&D) phase of the combat system programme.

“[This] presents an opportunity for Australian industry to participate in an exciting and strategically important programme to build and maintain an enduring and regionally superior Australian submarine capability,” said Lockheed Martin Australia.

It added, “This is a long programme and the technological solutions potentially sought may not necessarily have been invented yet. Therefore, R&D will play an integral function in the successful delivery of the programme.”

Specific requirements detailed by Lockheed Martin Australia include “novel methods for reliable communications on an unstable platform”; “emerging technologies for improved autonomous celestial navigation”; “distributed underwater sensor networks and their impact on submarine operations”; and “novel methods to integrate compressive sensing techniques”.

Other requirements relate to the tracking and management of power, advanced materials and fabrication processes, real-time monitoring of human performance, and managing the allocation of computing resources.

Lockheed Martin Australia has issued a call for local companies to register interest in participatin...

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