Page 61 - Australian Defence Magazine June 2022

JUNE 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
FROM THE SOURCE WARREN MCDONALD 61
ADM: What are your priorities now you’re at the head of a major defence prime?
MCDONALD: Well, it took a little bit to get my arms around being in industry, but Lockheed Martin was very generous and gave me time to gain an understanding of it. However, my priorities are ‘capture, deliver and sustain with excel- lence’. That’s my focus for the company. If you do all those three things right, then you should satisfy the customer and set the business up for the future.
ADM: What is the company culture?
MCDONALD: When I came out of flying and into a Defence desk job in Canberra, I realised shortly afterwards the how of it and that’s how you generate the future, that’s how you generate an Air Force or a Defence Force. It’s by being in- vested in bringing capabilities through, putting them to government and maturing them.
MAIN: Lockheed Martin’s Aegis Combat System installed in the Navy’s three Hobart-class destroyers will be upgraded to the latest Baseline 9 configuration
Capability has always been of interest and a comfort- able space. So, coming out of Defence into a company of 114,000 people, including 60,000 engineers, that is very focused on future capability was a comfortable transition. The people in Lockheed Martin have a similar makeup to those in Defence: hardworking, diligent, focused on getting outcomes and satisfying the customer.
ADM: What interested you about Lockheed Martin Aus- tralia?
MCDONALD: When I was asked whether I’d be interested in Lockheed Martin, I sat back and looked at what the compa- ny had. At that time, it included the Future Submarine, and we know that’s gone a different way, but then you look at, from all domains - space to the sea floor - Lockheed Martin has in its hands the combat capability of the Defence Force.
With that comes great responsibility to ensure that we deliver correctly, we must deliver the Defence Force what they need. That’s what attracted me.
ADM: What is your strategy for Air 6500, Air 6502 and Air 6503?
MCDONALD: It’s a corporate focus program, so Lockheed Martin Corporation is putting everything behind it because of the importance of it. At its core it is providing Defence with an open system architecture. What’s that mean? It’s ensuring that all of Defence’s major battlespace capabilities can be interconnected and that the delivered system is suit- ably agile enough to cater for changes in technology.
Our focus is to enable the ADF to connect their systems across all domains and in doing so achieve a greater level of awareness and the ability to provide Government with response options. We bring the best of Australian and in- ternational industry to achieve this.
PROFILE
2021 Chief Executive, Lockheed Martin Australia & New Zealand
2017 Chief of Joint Capabilities
2015 Deputy Chief of Air Force
2013 Commander Air Mobility Group
2009 Officer Commanding 92 Wing
2007 Commanding Officer 11 Squadron
1989 Commissioned as officer and pilot on P-3 Orion 1979 Apprentice, Royal Australian Air Force
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DEFENCE