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2017-02-16

COLLABORATION AND COOPERATION FROM AEROSPACE TO OUTER SPACE

Nation Shield sat down with Lockheed Martin’s UAE Chief Executive Bob Harward ahead of the company’s presence at the forthcoming IDEX and found out more about the company’s latest innovations.

By: Sakha Pramod

What is Lockheed Martin’s focus at IDEX this year?

Our top priority at IDEX is to engage with our Emirati and regional customers to best support their operational requirements. Our focus is to deliver the most affordable advanced technology solutions to protect citizens, and provide our customers and partners with critical capabilities to help solve some of the most difficult security challenges.

The theme for this edition of the IDEX Conference is ‘Disrupting Innovation in Defense and Security.’ How does Lockheed Martin encourage innovation in the industry?

At Lockheed Martin, we are driven by a sense of purpose and a passion for innovation to shape the future. Moreover, in defence and global security that kind of disruptive innovation requires partnership and collaboration.

Groundbreaking ideas often happen when people come together to create an idea that is better or more innovative than the sum of its parts. This power of sharing, or creating a space where ideas can fuse, swap and create new forms, is especially important in our complex world. Sharing allows us to work collaboratively across our own business areas to adapt the use of technology as customer needs evolve.

What are the main programmes and capabilities Lockheed Martin is collaborating with the UAE?

Protecting the UAE and our regional allies remains at the core of our partnership, and is more important today than ever before. We have had a strong relationship with the UAE for many decades, initially supporting defense programmes like the C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft, F-16 fighter, PAC-3 missile interceptor and THAAD anti-ballistic missile system. Today we are working together on everything from aerospace to outer space.

Lockheed Martin also strives to better the communities in the UAE. Can you elaborate on that and your focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)?

We always seek to support the UAE community through various activities. Recent examples include our UAE Community Robotics Challenge, our Generation Space: Fundamentals Training Programme, and a recent industrial entrepreneurial training program at our Center for Innovation & Security Solutions based in Masdar City. Right here in the UAE we are supporting the training and development of the next generation, through these training and development programs.

As a world-leading global aerospace and defence company with more than 70,000 engineers, we know that engineering a better tomorrow is only possible by advancing STEM today. That is why STEM is a critical focus for Lockheed Martin both globally and right here in the Middle East.

What are your key partnerships in the UAE?

We know in today’s environment partnerships make a world of difference. We’re proud to work with the Emirati government, industry and academia on a variety of programmes to advance security and help achieve the UAE’s vision of building a strong, resilient economy.

Our wide-ranging partnerships here in the UAE include working with Mubadala, the UAE Space Agency, Tawazun and Masdar, to name a few. Our Center for Innovation & Security Solutions (CISS), based in Masdar City, is testament to the long-standing partnership between Lockheed Martin and the UAE.

How does your Center for Innovation & Security Solutions help develop innovative solutions?

Lockheed Martin has always taken the lead in creating technological breakthroughs that address major global challenges, while delivering competitive solutions to help our customers stay ahead in an ever-changing world. At the CISS, we created a resident, in-depth, Modeling and Simulation (M&S) capability to immerse users in nearly all of Lockheed Martin’s platform products. The center has also developed a resident advanced computer-aided drafting (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) capability using visualisation technology, and has acquired a prototype 3D printer to enhance its CAD/CAM capability.

Do you have initiatives here in the region in the energy management segment?

For decades, we have invested in smart, natural and safe energy technologies – enabling global security, a strong economic future and climate protection for future generations. During the last several years, we’ve ramped up these efforts and made significant progress in the energy sector through acquisitions, new partnerships and increased business. To continue our growth in this key area, we have combined all energy products and technologies into a single commercial line of business that we will call Lockheed Martin Energy, and we look forward to working together with our regional partners and customers to help solve some of their most pressing energy challenges in the future.

UAE is investing big in space technologies and exploration. How are you helping the UAE in this sector?

For more than 50 years, our Space Systems Company has led the design and production of spacecraft that have helped advance humanity and supported our understanding of our planet from a different perspective.

Last year we collaborated with the UAE Space Agency and Mubadala to support the UAE’s journey into space, by training their next generation. In line with the UAE’s National Vision, ‘Generation Space’ was an intensive four-month programme - just completed in December - that took young Emirati engineers through the fundamentals of space, to the UAE and US space indigenous talent pipeline of students and professionals inspired towards long-term careers in the space industry.

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