Lockheed Martin [LMT] recently opened a new research and development center focused on cyber security innovation and technology and also formed a technology alliance with a number of industry partners to collaborate on cyber security solutions.

The 25,000 square foot NextGen Cyber Innovation and Technology Center in Gaithersburg, Md., includes a global cyber innovation range to solve technology issues in real-time and in simulated customer environments, the company said. Lockheed Martin and its partners will rapidly prototype potential solutions.

“Our new NexGen cyber center will foster innovation and collaboration to preserve our customers’ missions and address the worldwide cyber security challenges,” Linda Gooden, executive vice president, Lockheed Martin Information Systems and Global Services, said in a statement.

The center features several collaboration areas, a green information technology data center, cloud computing platforms, telepresence and high definition video teleconferencing, and site connectivity to other Lockheed Martin facilities worldwide.

The Lockheed Martin Cyber Security Alliance will combine its wide ranging capabilities in hardware, software and best practices within the NexGen Center. Alliance companies include APC by Schneider Electric, CA, Inc. [CA], Cisco [CSCO], Dell [DELL], EMC Corp. [EMC] and its RSA security division, Hewlett-Packard [HPQ], Intel [INTC], Juniper Networks [JNPR], McAfee [MFE], Microsoft [MSFT], NetApp [NTAP], Symantec [SYMC] and VMware [VMW].

“By bringing the combined strengths of market leading technology companies to the NexGen Cyber Innovation and Technology Center, we can accelerate development of solutions without boundaries or limitations,” Art Coviello, president of EMC’s RSA division, said in a statement. “Our adversaries operate in sophisticated criminal ecosystems that enable and enhance their attacks. To defend against such organized and purposeful opponents we need to build effective security ecosystems based on collaboration, knowledge sharing and industry best practices.”

The alliance will collaborate on solutions that can help provide early threat detection, protection, and multi-layer autonomic self-healing capabilities to solve customers’ hard problems and meet future challenges.