Expanding a Legacy of Engineering Excellence

Over the past week, I had an opportunity to participate in Engineer’s Week, or E-Week, an annual event dedicated to highlighting engineering and technology careers. I’m a big fan of E-Week and the effort we make across the business to bring a special focus and attention to our Engineers and Technology Specialists. Our leadership team has always said that at our core, Lockheed Martin is an engineering company. Technology and innovation are at the heart of what we do.

Missiles and Fire Control employs more than 6,000 engineers, all vital to the entire lifecycle of our programs and products. We depend on the Engineering and Technology team to anticipate and meet the demands of the industry, which in today’s climate are constantly evolving and unpredictable. Our company is responsible for providing the most advanced, next-generation capabilities to our customers, ensuring their mission success, and ultimately, helping bring our warfighters home safely.

 In fact, as I reflected over the past year, I was struck by the way the MFC team achieved tremendous accomplishments for the business and for our customers in spite of a year filled with unprecedented uncertainty – none of which would have been possible without the incredible effort the Engineering and Technology organization puts forth every day. Here are just a few examples:

• A PAC-3 MSE missile intercepted a target using data obtained from the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense Weapon System (THAAD).
• The team introduced an embedded sensor to detect and track airborne threats with weapon-quality accuracy, increasing pilot reaction time and survivability. 
• The Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) team secured the U.S. Army’s sole source contract after completing its third successful flight test and remains the only company to successfully fly this next-gen capability.

These achievements, amongst others, are all thanks to the team of MFC employees who persisted, despite difficult conditions and uncertain circumstances. I’ve seen firsthand the important impact our Lockheed Martin engineers and technologists have on the men and women we support. I have family who serve/have served in the Armed Forces, and the products we design help ensure they accomplish their missions and return home safely. We can’t take that responsibility lightly, and we work every day to ensure they have the best equipment possible. This means investing in our own team and operating with cutting-edge tools, efficient processes and the technology necessary to enable our engineers to deliver.

 Culture is Key

 But, even with the latest tools and technologies at our disposal, engineering teams won’t continue to thrive without a culture that nurtures innovation and shows adaptability. That adaptive culture we’ve built at MFC was proven to both survive and thrive as COVID-19 necessitated a shift to hybrid and flexible work models. As we made changes to our operational models, our people shifted right along with the business, staying engaged despite the challenges and continuing to deliver for our customers.

 We can’t stop there. Culture is always a work in progress. We must continue to strengthen our sense of connection and purpose – to one another and to the customer mission – in an era that continues to present unique challenges to the way we operate. 

 To do this, we have to empower our teams to take measured risk and to adopt a fail-fast, learn-fast mentality. We all need to ask the questions that challenge bureaucracy in favor of testing and learning new approaches.

 We must also harness the power of shared expertise, innovation and diversity to deliver innovative solutions. And we need to be able to do this whenever and wherever the Warfighter needs.

 Building a Legacy

 As our culture continues to evolve, we must build on that legacy. E-Week is about more than just celebrating and nurturing the incredible engineering talent we have today. It’s also about bringing visibility and excitement to the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) career fields, and inspiring the STEM talent of tomorrow.

 Each year our business invests in partnership programs with schools and universities that strengthen our relationship and help build a future talent pipeline of passionate engineering talent. Our engineers volunteer their time to connect with students of all ages in order to better educate and inspire them to pursue careers in STEM fields and hopefully one day consider a career at a company like Lockheed Martin.

While we invest in these efforts all year, E-Week is a perfect opportunity to increase our focus on thanking our engineers and sharing stories that inspire ourselves, each other and the next generation to be the pioneers of innovation today – and the architects of the future tomorrow.

As we close out 2021 E-Week, I’d ask that you join me in congratulating and thanking the engineers who show up every day to apply their considerable skills and knowledge to solve some of the world’s most complex problems and provide our customers with seamless solutions that help them accomplish their missions – anytime, anywhere.

If you’re so inclined, I’d love to hear your own stories in the comments below about engineers you know who inspire you; I can think of countless engineers I respect and admire for their tenacious dedication to solving tough problems and pushing the boundaries of the cutting edge. They are the essence of who we are and what we do at Lockheed Martin – and that’s a legacy to be proud of.