Lockheed Martin setting up centre for innovation in Gurgaon

New Delhi, Aug 2 (IANS) US defence and aerospace major Lockheed Martin Corp has entered into a 50:50 collaborative venture with Bangalore-based Wipro to set up a centre for innovation in Gurgaon on the edge of Delhi – its third such facility globally.

“We’re calling it the Network Centric Operations Centre (NCOC). It’ll have core competence in testing and analysing war-fighting concepts and other command and control operations,” said Richard G. Kirkland, the group’s president for South Asia.


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“This facility will have some 40 trained people. But as and when the need arises, we will deploy people depending on what kind of demonstration the client needs,” Kirkland, who is based in Arlington, Virginia, told IANS during a visit here.

Kirkland did not divulge the amount of money being invested in the project, but said: “The fact that this is only our third such centre globally speaks about the significance we attach to India and the project.”

The Gurgaon facility will help defence and homeland security customers fight terror and tackle other issues like natural disasters in an integrated manner by suggesting how the available resources can be optimally deployed.

Technically, the services offered by the centre will combine what is also called C4ISR capabilities – command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

“It will be modelled on the Centre for Innovation in Suffolk, Virginia, and the experimentation facility called ‘Swift’ at the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Britain,” Kirkland said.

“Essentially, the facility will develop for its civil and defence customers the solutions required to address complex problems, emerging threats and similar operational challenges, using modern techniques,” he added.

The situations can vary from floods to disasters and earthquakes and terror attacks, maritime surveillance and the whole battle space, while the solutions will help concerned authorities deal with the situation in the best possible manner.

“In other words, our expert team at the centre, together with the customers, can effectively simulate various operations so that a clearer understanding emerges about the challenges and opportunities of a situation and the technologies needed.”

(Arvind Padmanabhan can be reached at [email protected])

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