Summer Myatt
Lockheed Martin is keenly focused on delivering rapid capabilities in space. But the United States’ largest defense contractor wants to show its customers that its commitment to innovation isn’t just talk. That’s why Lockheed is prioritizing technology demonstrations that shine a spotlight on the company’s capabilities and what they can do.
In Executive Mosaic’s latest video interview, video reporter Summer Myatt sat down with Maria Demaree, vice president and general manager of national security space at Lockheed Martin and a 2024 Wash100 Award recipient, to talk about how Lockheed prioritizes tech demonstrations and learn more about the capabilities being showcased.
“We’re doing less talk, more show,” said Demaree, a two-time Wash100 Award winner. “We’re not just talking about these capabilities, we’re actually getting these capabilities on orbit and showing you that they’re real, they work and they can be deployed rapidly.”
Demaree told us about Lockheed’s findings from previous tech demonstrations and shed some light on what’s next in the company’s tech demo lineup.
Tantrum Demonstrates Wideband ESA
Lockheed’s Tantrum demonstration, launched in December 2023, showcased the company’s wideband electronically steerable antenna, or ESA, payload. Demaree said this launch demonstrated Lockheed’s ability to rapidly calibrate that capability in orbit. The demo also yielded some unexpected results about very low Earth orbit.
“We ended up in VLEO, which is very low Earth orbit, which was not our intended orbit. The demo itself was cut a little bit short because of that, but we also had some great findings on learning about the VLEO orbit and what capabilities and challenges you would have in that orbit,” shared Demaree.
CJADC2 Progress With Pony Express 2
Another capability Lockheed is demonstrating is Pony Express 2, which Demaree describes as “two small sats that are doing RF — radio frequency — collect and characterization.” And this capability is expected to be particularly useful in cross-domain connectivity.
“This is something that we’re really looking at how we can leverage it in JADC2, which is our customer’s Joint All-Domain Command and Control capabilities, as well as airspace integration,” Demaree said. “So this is a really important capability for us to have on our platforms for our customers, and we’re getting really great results.”
Lockheed to Demonstrate 5G.MIL With TacSat
Lockheed’s next capability to get on orbit is TacSat, short for Tactical Satellite. For Demaree, TacSat is expected to be a game changer in ensuring resilient communications constellations in the face of potential disruptions or threats.
“This is our first 5G.MIL payload that will be on orbit,” Demaree explained. “It’s going to be demonstrating networked voice and data satellite communications for military satellites.”
TacSat will demonstrate Lockheed’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR, capabilities, along with infrared and 5G capabilities.
“We’re going to be proving out specialized sensing and communication capabilities in orbit with this,” noted Demaree. “It’s really about cross domain target connectivity that’s going to enable timely execution of tactical space missions.”
Demaree also explained that TacSat will seamlessly interface with the company’s federated BMC2, or battle management command and control, combat systems, giving U.S. joint forces “the comprehensive picture that they need of the battlespace to be able to stay ahead of emerging threats.”
TacSat has completed all of its planned environmental testing and is ready for launch, Demaree shared.
The Software-Defined LM 400
LM 400 is Lockheed’s most flexible and versatile bus, Demaree argues, with the ability to serve military, civilian or commercial applications. LM 400 is currently being produced in Lockheed’s product center, and the company is looking to scale and ramp up production of this capability. Demaree said Lockheed is looking at how they can use LM 400 for remote sensing, communication, imaging and radar capabilities, among others.
Importantly, LM 400 also has software-defined satellite capabilities, meaning Lockheed can upload different capabilities to the satellite for different missions and purposes.
“For example, if we learn about a new cyber threat we can come up with software to counter that threat and change that satellite software so that it can be enabled to constantly be updated to the latest threats. But also we can change the mission that it does by using software,” explained Demaree.
“The ultimate benefit of our software-defined satellite is the ability to do onboard processing, which really allows us to get actionable data to the decision makers on the ground more rapidly in support of our customers’ most important missions,” she added.
For more insights into Lockheed’s tech demos and space priorities, watch Maria Demaree’s full video interview.
