Lockheed, Cisco team up in fed space

Lockheed Martin Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. on Wednesday announced an alliance

that will incorporate Cisco's commercial technology solutions into Lockheed's

U.S. government bids.

Under the agreement, the companies will work together to identify and

pursue new business opportunities in the federal market, focusing on systems

integration and IT service requirements.

Lockheed and Cisco also will establish cross-functional business development

and technology teams to focus on existing and emerging opportunities and

exchange best practices.

"We initiated discussions about a year ago, and the signatures were

added within the last week," said Jerry Lindstrom, vice president of business

development for Lockheed Martin's Systems Integration. "The idea is to target

all of our federal customers because they are clamoring for the use of commercial

technologies in their systems and this is a channel mechanism for that to

happen."

Lindstrom said Lockheed already has plans to immediately apply Cisco

technologies to two major contracts in competition:

* The lead systems integrator for the DD-21, the U.S. Navy's next-generation

land attack destroyer.

* The Air Force's Integrated Space Command and Control requirement,

modernizing the current battle management and command and control systems

at the North American Aerospace Defense Command facility in Cheyenne Mountain,

Colo.

"Through this alliance, we are positioned to provide unparalleled integrated

communications support for the warfighter and enhanced service to the citizen,"

said Ed McCrossen, federal area vice president of Cisco.

San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco's federal customers include the Defense

Department, the intelligence community and many civilian agencies. Bethesda,

Md.-based Lockheed's federal customer base includes all the military services

and the departments of Commerce, Justice, Transportation and the Treasury.

Another benefit of the alliance is that Cisco has agreed to train Lockheed

Martin's engineers in order to make them Cisco-certified, which will be

a "benefit for our federal customers as we bid Cisco products into our projects,"

Lindstrom said.

Lindstrom said the alliance is a two-year agreement, but he expects

that it will be extended after that.