San Jose, CA June 17, 2002 Aircraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin Aeronautics is set to use a collaborative design solution from Centric Software in a bid to accelerate development of next-generation avionics displays for the Joint Strike Fighter program.
Centric's Collaborative Product Innovation (CPI) application suite offers such product development and design capabilities as functional prototyping, which allows manufacturers to digitally validate product functionality, as opposed to simply form and fit, of a mechanical, electromechanical or electronics system.
CPI has already been in use for over a year on the F-16 aircraft. Now Lockheed Martin will use the suite in an effort to maximize its engineering resources and therefore optimize product design.
"The Centric Software solution enables us to create complete functional display prototypes early in our development cycle and autocode symbology for use in our embedded display software," said Tom Burbage, executive vice president and general manager of the Lockheed Martin JSF program. "This process has allowed us to bridge the gap between rapid prototyping and flight-qualified display software."
The JSF program, awarded to the Lockheed Martin team in October 2001, is the largest defense contract in history, with a value of approximately $25 billion. The program's total value over its lifetime is projected to be at least $200 billion. The JSF currently is charged with developing and building 3,000 of the supersonic fighters for the U.S. and U.K. militaries, among others.
For additional insights into how government contractors are using the latest e-tools to streamline their work with the civilian and military sides of the U.S. government, see "e-Pluribus Unum," the cover story in the June/July 2002 issue of iSource Business.
