Wipro-Lockheed Martin net-centric warfare innovation centre in Gurgaon
21 August 2007
US defence and aerospace major Lockheed Martin and the Bangalore-based IT major Wipro have set up a 50:50 collaborative venture for innovation at Gurgaon, its third such facility globally.
The centre, known as Ambar Jyoti, opened on 18 August. It will develop, demonstrate and experiment with emerging network-enabled capabilities and applications. The two companies will build this as a modelling and simulation experimentation facility.
The brief before the new lab is to explore the art of the possible and prepare for network-centric operations of the future, Lockheed president for South Asia Richard G Kirkland said at the opening event.
The project will enable India to get easier access to advanced network-centric architectures and concepts. The lab's core competence will be in testing and analysing war-fighting concepts and other command and control operations. It will employ some 40 trained people to begin with.
Modelled on the Centre for Innovation in Suffolk, Virginia, and the experimentation facility called 'Swift' at the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Britain, the Gurgaon facility, on the edge of the national capital, will also help defence and homeland security customers fight terror and tackle issues like disasters in an integrated manner by analysing how resources can be optimally deployed.