INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
Roger Krone Chief Executive Officer, Leidos What is Leidos’ relationship with NATO? Leidos has a long-standing, strategic partnership with NATO, serving as a trusted provider since the 1990s, executing contracts in support of European missile defence. We’re proud to help bring NATO into the 21st century and have designed and built the IT infrastructure at the new NATO headquarters (HQ) through the Active Network Infrastructure (ANWI) project. Leidos has a 50-year legacy, and as a $10 billion company delivering global solutions in information technology, engineering and science, we bring a valued perspective to the challenges facing NATO, its Member States and other defence organisations.
What are some key takeaways from the ANWI project? We signed the ANWI contract in August 2013, achieving Full Operating Capability (FOC) in March 2018. Now, Member States and staff are benefiting from their new HQ and its mission-designed IT infrastructure. This project presented unique challenges including building delays, major technological innovation, an increasing cyber-threat landscape and numerous contractual changes to address evolving requirements throughout the life of the contract. This required Leidos and our international partners to be innovative, adaptive and flexible while closely collaborating with NATO. We helped NATO reduce costs and bring modern commercial practices to their IT infrastructure in a secure way. In today’s increasingly digital and information-driven world, IT infrastructure is complex and no longer just a mission support function – recognising this reality, NATO and Leidos worked together to deliver a secure IT infrastructure.
Could you expand on Leidos’ involvement in the NATO Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) domain? Leidos has been working with NATO on its approach to BMD for more than 20 years. Our support began in the 1990s with
architecture performance studies as part of cooperative efforts between NATO and what is now the U.S. Missile Defense Agency. Leidos successfully led the Active Layered Theatre Ballistic Missile Defence (ALTBMD) Feasibility Study and a series of follow-on studies. Now, we’re leading the ongoing BMD System Engineering and Integration (SE&I) Project, which addresses the SE&I lifecycle for NATO BMD battle management command and control (C2) for defence of deployed forces and NATO territory. As part of this work, the Leidos Team designed, developed, deployed and continues to operate the NATO BMD Integration Test Bed. I’m proud of our role in helping NATO achieve an Initial Operational Capability for NATO BMD in time for the 2016 NATO Summit. It’s incredible to see the NATO BMD programme continuing on the path of FOC with successful exercises like Steadfast Amour, Steadfast Alliance and Formidable Shield.
What investments is Leidos making to anticipate future customer needs? Leidos is investing in emerging capabilities that will provide our customers with mission advantages in autonomy, C2, IT modernisation, cybersecurity and complex global logistics. We recognise that national security will increasingly rely on autonomy to execute previously unthinkable missions. Automated systems will play integrated roles in all domains, and Leidos is leading this development, having already created a highly automated unmanned vessel for the U.S. Navy, capable of operating on the open seas for months at a time over thousands of nautical miles. As the evolution of modern warfare increases the speed of events in theatre, the C2 systems we develop and the speed at which we deploy them must also evolve. Leidos is developing next-generation C2 systems and security solutions, leveraging our agile software development processes. Leidos is working with myriad agencies and organisations to ensure they stay ahead of today and tomorrow’s cyber threats while modernising IT infrastructure and service delivery to improve capabilities and deliver further efficiencies. We’re working to equip the warfighter with new intuitive and effective technologies to navigate the domain with confidence. We help the U.S. Department of Homeland Security operate a centre responsible for detecting and responding to cyber intrusions on their networks; we’re also modernising and supporting a global U.S. Department of Defense network with more than three million users. As a recognised leader in modernszing complex global logistics and supply chains, Leidos has developed comprehensive approaches to optimizing global supply chains. One example is the Logistics Commodities & Services Transformation (LCST) programme, which is transforming the United Kingdom’s defence supply chain by automating processes, and deploying state-of-the-art technology and data analytics that bring real-time visibility and reporting to logistics decision-making. Across all missions, Leidos is focused on the future. We’re looking forward to continuing our support to NATO so that the Alliance can continue to effectively meet missions in an increasingly complex and changing threat landscape.
NATO SUMMIT 2018 – BRUSSELS
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