By Chris Forrester
Johnathon Caldwell, VP/GM Strategic & Missile Defense Systems, Lockheed Martin Space delivered a prime executive presentation at the Silicon Valley Space Week and its MilSat Symposium sessions. Mr Caldwell reminded delegates of May 7 2021 when a ransomware cyber-attack on the Colonial Pipeline brought life to a standstill in and around Houston. It affected millions, traffic, airlines. Fast forward to the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, and the attack on the Viasat system as part of a blitzkrieg action on an independent nation. The next 10 years will see AI consume huge amounts of our electricity output and an attack on GPS will be a direct attack on the Grid.
He painted other challenges that business and consumers could inevitably face if space assets were affected.
He praised the role of Silicon Valley and its businesses and its cooperation between military and civilian activity and how it sparked innovation and which came out of defence technologies. But he said in his experience he had seen capital come into the industry, and capital vanish. Then the cash went into fiber-optic and space investment was diminished.
Caldwell said that Lockheed Martin was embracing new standards but open architecture was the new mantra. He said the industry would be nimbler if open standards were adopted and it was not necessary for government to be involved.
He explained that Lockheed wanted to get involved with outside ventures and form business entities to solve new problems and in particular in the design and AI spaces. He invited delegates to get involved and that Lockheed was happy to have a dialogue. He hoped that government would recognise what Lockheed was trying to create, and would ultimately reward that initiative. And this included direct investments in businesses..
He suggested that the space economy was worth some $2 trillion in the next decade, and when indirect output was included it was worth upwards of tens of trillions of dollars.
Caldwell said he looked to the day in the near future which would echo the glory days of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s when in the San Francisco Bay area when defense and commercial worked collaboratively and which resulted in a time of radical technological developments. The 80s and 90s were something of a downturn, but now we’re back. I believe this is going to be a time of growth like no other. What other companies might come into being because of what we’re doing today, and together.
