Eurosatory 2018: Latest developments on Lockheed Martin’s Air & Missile Defence systems.

Stelios Kanavakis

Senior Defence Analyst

Army Recognition had the opportunity to attend Lockheed Martin’s briefing on the latest developments in its Air and Missile Defence capabilities. Mr. Howard Bromberg, Vice President for Strategy and Business Development for Integrated Air and Missile Defense offered us an insight on the company’s systems currently available or under development.

 
A slide shown during the presentation offering an idea of the future M-SHORAD system for the US Army programme. (Picture source Army Recognition)

Lockheed Martin’s goal is to offer a wide range of systems that will cover all kinds of modern threats, in every layer of an integrated air defence, while being modular in order be able to counter future threats and different customer requirements.

In terms of layering, the upper tier includes the Aegis BMD and THAAD systems, and the lower tier the PAC-3/MSE, TLVS and MHTK.

Demand-wise in FY2018, THAAD has received orders totaling USD 1,4 Billion (98 interceptors) and PAC-3/MSE USD 1,94 Billion (more than 400 interceptors). For the TLVS it was reported that after the completion of the negotiations with Germany a contract would be awarded soon.

Note that Germany is the Framework Nation of the TLVS programme within NATO, so the contract award and successful integration in the country’s air defence network is of great importance, opening the way for its procurement by other customers.

For the successful support of the TLVS programme in Germany, Lockheed Martin formed a joint venture with MBDA Deutschland. The system will integrate MBDA’s IRIS-T SL (Surface Launched) interceptors in the country’s air defence network. The 360^ocoverage system will be the only secteric one in the market. That is, one capable of launching multiple missiles simultaneously to different directions.

Another programme Lockheed Martin is working on is the M-SHORAD system of the US Army. Lessons-learned from the war in Ukraine have dictated the necessity for a vehicle-mounted missile SHORAD system, capable of following mechanized/armoured units. Although it is still under development, it was revealed that the system’s area of coverage will be somewhere between 15 and 25 km. According to Lockheed Martin, there has already been interest from foreign customers.

Finally, Lockheed Martin is developing a Ground-Based Air Defence System built around currently available technologies. Modularity will be a key element of the system in order to accommodate the customer needs. It will be based on the Skykeeper C2 and it will be possible to integrate it to US or export customers’ air defence networks. As a hard-kill system it will use the MSHORAD future interceptor and the MHTK. The negotiations on the system’s technical characteristics are ongoing but it is expected that it will have a range of 40-50 km.