Lockheed Martin has launched a rapid prototyping hub at its Virginia-based “Lighthouse” facility to develop command-and-control systems for the Golden Dome, the proposed US homeland missile defense shield. Within just 36 days, the hub began testing real capabilities to counter ground-to-space threats, according to Defense News. The effort focuses on integrating existing systems for threat detection and response at scale, aiming for a unified, mission-driven command structure. Lockheed stresses collaboration with other defense and non-traditional industry players to meet the ambitious goals set by the Trump-era initiative. They write:
Lockheed Martin has launched a prototyping hub to develop possible command-and-control solutions to be offered as a critical part of the Golden Dome homeland missile defense shield’s architecture, the company announced Tuesday.
Within 36 days of the original idea, the company established the capability at its Center for Innovation facility in Suffolk, Virginia, also known as “the Lighthouse,” Thad Beckert, the company’s director of strategy and business development for its rotary and mission systems division, told reporters.
“Prototyping is already underway at the Lighthouse,” a company statement reads, “where real capabilities are being tested against current and future threat scenarios, from ground to space.” […]
“You want to have more than one shot at that threat. You also want to know that you’re putting the right weapon on the right threat, and you’re matching it against what you think might be coming. […]
Yet while existing capabilities will be leveraged, Beckert noted that “these weren’t designed originally to operate as a single, unified command-and-control capability. We have to bring them together and have them start exchanging data, not just any data, mission-thread-informed data, so that we can look at the mission and we can make sure that… the new way is faster, and that is success.”
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