JFCOM, Lockheed Martin sign R&D agreement

Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) and Lockheed Martin signed a three-year agreement last month to work together on researching and developing technologies to help commanders better oversee warfighters.

The Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) for the Joint Command-Future project calls for JFCOM and Lockheed Martin to identify and improve command, control, communications and computer systems and information tools to better share data in a network-centric environment. JFCOM will have access to Lockheed Martin’s new, multimillion-dollar Center for Innovation in Suffolk, Va., and the company will get to work with the command’s warfighting experts, according to JFCOM and company statements.

“We’re going to look at how we can better support the future joint force commander,” said Air Force Lt. Col. Dewey Parker, the command’s principal investigator for the project.

“We’ll first establish the joint distributed environment so that Lockheed Martin engineers can collaborate with warfighters in solving the tough joint challenges,” said Mike Upson, the company’s principal investigator for the project.

JFCOM and Hewlett-Packard also signed a five-year CRADA in October to work on high-performance computing. A CRADA defines the responsibilities and intellectual properties of each party in the project.