Radar-research consortium teams Lockheed Martin and Finnish defense companies
NewsNovember 22, 2023
BETHESDA, Md. and ESPOO, Finland. Lockheed Martin and Finnish R&D engineering agency VTT signed a cooperation agreement to lead a consortium to develop signals-intelligence technologies aimed at benefiting the global defense industry.
An announcement from VTT says that the agreement to establish the consortium is connected to Finland’s procurement of F-35 fighter jets; the Finnish government signed an agreement in 2022 to purchase 64 F-35s from Lockheed Martin, with deliveries of the jets slated to start in 2026. The consortium is intended, states the VTT announcement, to develop methods and technologies for radar and communication signal detection and classification for the modern warfighter. Additionally, the announcement arises amid ongoing discussions between Lockheed Martin and VTT over another framework agreement for a second project, this one focusing on millimeter-wave passive imaging radiometer development.
VTT officials say that additional consortium members will include Finnish corporations Patria, Harp Technologies, and another unnamed Finnish space and defense company, along with Finland's Aalto University and the University of Tampere.
Sauli Eloranta, director of safe and connected society research area at VTT, said of the agreement: "The purpose of the project is to combine the expertise and technological strengths of different parties, creating highly developed solutions and advanced new expertise that can be applied to the needs of the international defense industry, and to the products of next-generation electronic reconnaissance."
