By Geoff Fein
Lockheed Martin [LMT] has opened a West Coast Technology Collaboration Center (TCC) to better leverage southern California small businesses, according to a company official.
“We have basically replicated TCC East, to a certain extent. We have our LCS (Littoral Combat Ship) COMBATSS 21 as a test bed, and our cruiser modernization Aegis Weapon System, which we are now describing as ACB 08. We have those two major test beds out here,” Frank Boyle, program manager for technology collaboration, told Defense Daily in a recent interview.
“The idea is to leverage the southern California technology small businesses. That’s the primary reason we have done this, and to further extend our outreach activities to small businesses,” he added.
The TCC’s have been traditionally maritime focused, Bill McFarland, senior manager technical information management, told Defense Daily.
However, with the advent of the TCC West, there could be opportunities to partner with small companies working other information technology areas, he added.
“Given the lab work which typically goes on here, which is much more netcentric, SOA (Systems Oriented Architecture) focused kind of work, small business that are here are much more tuned to that kind of work,” McFarland said. “That’s the exciting part about being here in San Diego. There are different kinds of focuses of technologies that we don’t see traditionally on the East Coast.”
The new center opened Feb. 18. Lockheed Martin already has a couple of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs underway. McFarland said those companies have been traveling back and forth between the TCC East in Washington, D.C., and the West Coast facility.
“We are [hoping to] afford them the opportunity to come here and spend a little bit less of their precious dollars,” he said. “In addition to that work, about 20 small business will be here [on Feb. 18]. It’s their first introduction into this approach so it’s all kind of new to them. We’ll be kind of new to them–our particular business segment is probably a bit foreign to them.”
On Feb. 19, Lockheed Martin set up one-on-one sessions with small business, affording them an opportunity to talk with Lockheed Martin officials and to begin developing relationships, McFarland added.
Another reason for opening a new TCC in San Diego is the facility’s location to both the 3rd Fleet and surface force command, McFarland said.
The 3rd Fleet and Naval Surface Forces might have a technology gap they are looking to fill, he said. That need could result in a small business award, or SBIR. That small business might require a facility like the technology collaboration center, McFarland added.
“[They] may need a facility like this to get [their technology] integrated and get it to sea,” he said.
Additionally the Navy is currently testing the USS Bunker Hill (CG-52), the first ship to undergo Lockheed Martin’s Aegis modernization, as part of the advanced capability build (ACB) 08, off San Diego. And, in a few years, the Navy will begin home porting LCS in San Diego.
Rob Pence, president of Maryland-based Lakota Technical Solutions, said the TCC East was a tremendous value to his company.
“We actually demonstrated with Lockheed Martin about two years ago some technology that is actually going to be part of the ACB 08 delivery,” he told Defense Daily. “Without the TCC demo, we would never have gotten to their level of fidelity with our software to be able to be even considered for ACB 08.”
Another user of TCC East is California-based Real-Time Innovations, a small technology company located in Silicon Valley.
“The team [Maritime Systems and Sensors] has put together here for providing advocacy for the small business…they have folks here that know the Navy customer. They have deep relationships with them at an engineering level that again it’s hard for the small business subcontractor or supplier to have that depth,” Joe Schlesselman, director of marketing development, aerospace and defense, told Defense Daily.
“They’ve got high-level relationships with the program managers, the key personnel, that the small business, in order to progress through an SBIR or through the acquisition process., really needs.”