Defence Events

Lockheed Martin UK supports British Army tech demo

Posted 13 March 2024

Lockheed Martin has showcased UK sovereign technologies developed by British engineers in support of the British Army’s participation in Project Convergence, an event held over the last few weeks to demonstrate next-generation deterrence technologies to an international audience in the United States.

Image courtesy Lockheed Martin

SkyKeeper (above), a Battlespace Management Command and Control system developed in Ampthill, Bedfordshire and Indago 4, a TIQUILA programme uncrewed air system (UAS) developed by Skunk Works engineers and containing advanced surveillance technology developed by engineers in Havant, Hampshire, were demonstrated to key allies including Australia, France, Japan, New Zealand and the US by the British Army, supported by Lockheed Martin technicians from both locations.

Paul Livingston, Chief Executive, Lockheed Martin UK said: “This event offers an opportunity to show how home-grown UK defence technologies can address lessons currently being learned in Ukraine, while helping our international allies develop and integrate advanced capabilities for multidomain operations.”

SkyKeeper is an evolution of the British Army’s in-service Land Environment Air Picture Provision (LEAPP) capability, which has been deployed with the British Army during both the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts and has also been used to help protect the British public and dignitaries at high-profile global events hosted in the UK, including COP26 and G7 Summits. LEAPP has recently gone through an upgrade programme which enables it to communicate via Link 16, allowing enhanced situational awareness data sharing among NATO and allied nations.

Colonel Chris Coton, Commander 7 Air Defence Group said: “Project Convergence (PC) is an excellent opportunity to experiment with new concepts and de-risk future capabilities alongside allied partners. As part of our presence at PC, we have demonstrated LEAPP in a box, showcasing how the system can be adapted for greater flexibility, mobility and agility. Iterative development of LEAPP is enabling 7 Air Defence Group to sustain a military advantage of this critical capability against an ever-evolving threat landscape.”

Lockheed Martin was also invited by the British Army to integrate TIQUILA with Project ZODIAC. Project ZODIAC is transforming how the Army undertakes data-led decision making in the land environment to gain operational advantage and is committed to integrating all battlefield sensor capabilities including new capability delivered by the TIQUILA UAS programme.

Indago 4 (above), one of the small uncrewed air systems which forms part of the UK's TIQUILA intelligence, surveillance, tracking and reconnaissance UAS programme, took to the skies during Project Convergence. TIQUILA UAS features sophisticated targeting and automated target and threat recognition, enabled by the latest artificial intelligence technology.