Australia has picked Lockheed Martin [LMT] over Northrop Grumman [NOC] as the “strategic partner” for the Australian Defence Force’s (ADF) AIR6500-1 Joint Air Battle Management System (JABMS).
JABMS is to provide integrated air and missile defense for the ADF.
Lockheed Martin Australia “will collaborate with other Australian defense industry partners, presenting significant workforce, technological, and integration opportunities for Australian industry,” the Australian Ministry of Defense said in an Aug. 29 statement. “The project is likely to generate up to 230 jobs, including for subcontractors, in high-tech areas including software development, systems engineering, project management and logistics.”
Australia has funded JABMS at $765 million in “what is expected to be a multibillion dollar program,” the ministry said.
The government chose Australia’s CEA Technologies to build four Active Electronically Scanned Array radars for JABMS Tranche 1 to detect aircraft and missiles at greater ranges and more accurately than the current Tactical Air Defense Radar System. The new selection of Lockheed Martin Australia as ADF’s “strategic partner” for JABMS is part of Tranche 2, which is to enhance interoperability with allies, including the United States, and which may include more sensors.
Boeing [BA] and RTX [RTX] have also participated in the JABMS competition and are to continue to aid JABMS development.
“This first-of-its-kind system 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 the United States and allied partners,” Lockheed Martin Australia said on Aug. 28.
Stephanie Hill, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin rotary and mission systems, said in a statement that AIR6500-1 “will set the blueprint for future military Joint All-Domain Operations across the globe.”
Lockheed Martin Australia said that it has worked on AIR6500-1 since 2015 and that its validation of more than 130 Australian small and medium size businesses as potential JABMS partners will alleviate “supply chain fragility.”
Warren McDonald, chief executive of Lockheed Martin Australia and New Zealand, said that Australia’s development of “sovereign missile defense technologies” will help unlock an “$83 billion export market for Australia’s defense industry.”