Success story
Lockheed Martin transforms development processes, speeds delivery
Overview
Lockheed Martin, a global security and aerospace company, needed to modernize the application development process it used to bring new capabilities to the U.S. Air Force’s fleet of F-22 Raptor fighter jets. The company chose Red Hat® Open Innovation Labs to lead it through the agile transformation process and help it implement an open source architecture onboard the F-22. With its new, agile processes, Lockheed Martin has improved its ability to forecast for future sprints by 40% and will be able to deliver new communications capabilities 3 years ahead of schedule.
By working with the Red Hat Open Innovation Labs team, we changed everything—our toolchain, our process, and most importantly, our culture.
- INDUSTRY
Technology - REGION
North America (NA) - HEADQUARTERS
Bethesda, MD, USA - SIZE
Approximately 105,000 employees in the United States and internationally
Opportunity
Stay competitive with faster development
To stay ahead of competitive threats, Lockheed Martin needed to upgrade its development process using an agile methodology and DevSecOps practices. “When you have a world-renowned platform like the F-22 Raptor, adversaries are constantly looking for ways to counter it,” said Michael Cawood, Vice President of F-16/F-22 product development with Lockheed Martin. “This means we must constantly add capabilities and improve the F-22. And we must do it faster than ever before. We needed to transform our own organization and how we did things.”
Solution
Adopt agile methodologies and build an open architecture
Lockheed Martin chose Red Hat Open Innovation Labs to help them transform from waterfall development to an agile approach—while disentangling its web of embedded systems. Together, Lockheed Martin and Red Hat built an open architecture to accelerate application development and delivery. “By working with the Red Hat Open Innovation Labs team, we changed everything—our toolchain, our process, and most importantly, our culture,” said Cawood. “With our new culture firmly rooted in DevSecOps and agile, and a more flexible platform based on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, the F-22 team will continue its work to ensure the Raptor meets America’s defense needs.”
Software & services
Business Outcome
Streamline design and delivery to increase efficiency and speed
Lockheed Martin’s new processes and platform eliminated multiple-day design reviews. The company now demonstrates capability maturity with each sprint. In addition, Lockheed Martin now builds a minimum viable product (MVP) to deliver capabilities to the customer as quickly as possible. The F-22 Raptor scrum team has improved its ability to forecast for future sprints by 40%, and only 1 year after starting its project, Lockheed Martin is slated to deliver new F-22 communications capabilities 3 years ahead of schedule. “With the Red Hat partnership, we can see the day when we develop a capability, fly it the next day, and deliver it to the warfighter in a way similar to how we receive updates on our mobile devices,” said Cawood.
I’m excited about our ability to deliver capabilities to the F-22 fleet faster and more affordably. I’m even more excited to see what the future holds, as we continue to revolutionize the way we think and scale this transformation to the F-16 and other Lockheed Martin products.
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