Lockheed Martin dedicated a new 20,000-square foot, $3 million facility in Rockville, Md., to house a “secure, state-of-the-art software development environment,” according to a company release. The Milsatcom Center of Excellence includes a software development, integration, and test laboratory, and office space for engineers and software developers. Lockheed plans to consolidate its Milsatcom activities currently conducted at Gaithersburg, Md., and at the former Comsat facility in Clarksburg, Md., at the new center. It also plans to hire “up to 200” additional people.
The Space Force is playing midwife to a new ecosystem of commercial satellite constellations providing alternatives to the service’s own Global Positioning Service from much closer to the Earth, making their signals more accurate and harder to jam.