Lockheed Plans to Develop Centralized DoD Combat Operating System

Lockheed Martin is slated to work on four experimental projects focused on establishing interoperability between systems to improve data sharing and support future combat operations, Defense One reported Sunday.

The projects will encompass efforts to link satellites, aircraft, a space-based tactical layer and systems handled by the U.S. Navy and Army. 

Lockheed envisions a unified operating system that can initiate explosions, disable enemy systems, visualize available assets, aid decision-making and facilitate predictive maintenance. The disparate systems would be integrated with a cloud-based architecture, which will be connected to the proposed Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud.

“You end up with virtual private clouds on the edge with a computing architecture you could have on an aircraft, on a ship, or any of the deployed nodes,” noted John Clark, vice president of intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and unmanned aerial systems at Lockheed, during the Defense One Outlook 2020 event.

Lockheed previously launched efforts with the Department of Defense to link F-35 and F-22 fighter jets. The program eventually expanded to include fourth-generation fighter aircraft, satellites and a ground station.