In space, new commercial players, emerging threats and increased military activity have converged to create a highly competitive and contested environment. It’s more important now than ever for U.S. government agencies and military services to work closely with industry partners to deliver better, more effective and more technologically advanced capabilities in the domain.
Executive Mosaic sat down for a video interview with Maria Demaree, vice president and general manager of national security space at Lockheed Martin, to discuss how Lockheed sees the space domain and how the company is partnering with its public sector customers to better meet their needs.
“It’s really about the urgency and customer mission,” said the two-time Wash100 Award winner in conversation with Executive Mosaic video reporter Summer Myatt. “We look at what does our customer need in the near-term? And what are going to be gamechanging technologies in five years or 10 years from now?”
Lockheed Martin has been a dominant presence in the government contracting industry for decades. The company is now the largest defense contractor for the U.S. government. But today’s space domain is markedly different from that of even just a few years ago. To adapt to emerging technologies, threats and challenges, Demaree said Lockheed is constantly looking forward and working to better anticipate its customers’ needs.
“We’ve been a part of these domains with our customer for many decades, so we understand the mission, we understand what is needed and we’re looking out for the newest and latest technologies that we can integrate in for our customers,” said the Lockheed VP.
Lockheed’s commitment to innovation even extends beyond the scope of the company itself. Demaree explained that Lockheed serves as an integrator to bring other capabilities and technologies to the table to provide the best possible solutions for its customers.
“As a system integrator, [we] even recommend to them possible options for them to consider that would accelerate their technology readiness,” she said. “That doesn’t matter if it’s capability that’s produced by Lockheed Martin, if it’s a commercial provider or if it’s an external company that we need to partner with to get that best-of-breed capability onto our platform.”
Explore Lockheed Martin’s latest tech demos and IRAD initiatives in Maria Demaree’s full video interview.
