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Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works Division Has Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works division has become a model for DOD acquisition. Secret Solutions From the Desert ockheed Martin’s supersecret Top Pentagon acquisition officials— acquisition reformers “have advocated “Skunk Works” advanced devel- Deputy Defense Secretary Robert O. a lean and less burdensome approach opment organization—producer Work and acquisition, technology, and to managing programs and to making of the U-2 and SR-71 spyplanes logistics chief Frank Kendall, to name major acquisition decisions. One ... is and the F-117 stealth jet aircraft, two—have made it a staple of recent the ‘Skunk Works’ approach, which dates Lamong a host of other highly classifi ed speeches that industry and government to the 1960s. This approach involves projects—is starting to break its traditional alike should emulate the Skunk Works small, highly competent government silence. This is driven in part by plaudits model. It’s unusual praise from officials from top Pentagon acquisition leaders and who ordinarily must be strictly agnos- Top: The most recent Skunk Works partly by a desire to be better understood tic in their comments about industry project to come out of the black was the RQ-170 Sentinel. Internet pho- by the public. vendors. tos have shown it in Afghanistan, on The special projects unit is at work Kendall started calling Skunk Works to Guam, and refueling from a tanker. on a fl urry of next generation concepts, the front of the class in his 2013 rollout Bottom: The Skunk Works facility in some of them discussed by leaders during of “Better Buying Power 2.0,” the second Palmdale, Calif.Two of its more famous a recent Air Force Magazine visit to the installment of his improved guidelines successes—the P-80 jet fi ghter and F-117 attack jet—sit on poles outside Skunk Works facility at Air Force Plant for Pentagon procurement managers. the main building. 42 in Palmdale, Calif. In covering commentary, Kendall said 28 AIR FORCE Magazine / June 2015 Internet photo and industry teams working together on a new product development.” In speeches this year, Kendall and Work have further touted the Skunk Works method as a smart template for preserving the US military edge during a period of flat budgets, as adversaries close the technology gap. In their view, it will be crucial to rapidly prototype new systems and accelerate the pace that technology is refreshed on existing platforms. Speed, Kendall said, can be gained by reducing “non-value-added” oversight from the Pentagon and Con- gress, by clearly defining projects and desired outcomes, by keeping work groups small, and by using mature but not yet fielded technologies. Today, Skunk Works is working on hypersonics, directed energy, a sixth generation fighter, future spyplanes, and various classified programs. “We’re being a little more public,” said Rob Weiss, Skunk Works vice president and general manager, because “we think it’s important that the nation recognizes that we’re very relevant to ... the nation’s defense needs ... and how we have the right model and culture to develop capability that’s critical, and to develop it quickly and affordably.” Speaking in a reception and meet- ing area clearly geared to high-level visitors—access to work areas is tightly controlled—Weiss said the Skunk Works model can be summed up as “getting the requirements right up front, having a small number of requirements that you’re Secret Solutions really designing to, and holding those requirements through the development process.” In addition, it’s important to get “the right people on the government side, getting the right people on the industry side” with the right talents, From the DesertBy John A. Tirpak, Editorial Director establishing “trust between government Photo by Paul Weatherman AIR FORCE Magazine / June 2015 29 CIA photo CIA A-12s—secret CIA spyplanes that were forerunners of the SR-71—under construc- and industry, [and making] sure we’re not tion when Skunk Works was located in Burbank, Calif. adding people to the equation that don’t really add any value. Small empowered Skunk Works developed the Navy Sea Airship, a proof-of-concept vehicle teams [are] one of the keys to success” Shadow stealth ship—whose lessons aimed at a future airlifter. It combines at Skunk Works. now echo in the slab-sided designs of traditional lighter-than-air technology Third, Weiss said the unit’s success modern Navy vessels—and the RQ-170 with an aerodynamic shape that will “is really having your arms around the Sentinel, about which Lockheed Martin generate about 20 percent of the craft’s risk side of the equation.” Besides cli- will add nothing to the Air Force’s terse lift when under power. Big as it is, the ent and contractor both having a clear description that it is a stealthy remotely envisioned final version would be many understanding of risk, Weiss said Skunk piloted vehicle, one having famously times larger and deliver heavy payloads Works looks to drive it lower by “look- crashed in Iran. directly to the front, eliminating the ing for a lot of reuse,” such as hard- Books have been written detailing need to move extremely heavy cargo by ware components and software already other Skunk Works projects, not all sea to ports and then transshipping it to shown to work on other platforms. The having progressed to a fielded product, forward areas by truck or rail. Have Blue, for example—Skunk Works’ and not all successful. Next to the airship is “The Great Wall,” proof-of-concept aircraft that led to the The Skunk Works facility comprises as employees call it. Undecorated and F-117—used engines, instruments, and several buildings at Palmdale. One houses dozens of feet tall, it blocks a view of an ejection seat from the F-5 fighter; the offices where analyses and design whatever secret projects Skunk Works landing gear from an A-10 attack air- are done. Another serves as the home of is working on. Power tools as well as plane; and an F-16’s fly-by-wire flight programmed depot maintenance on the less-sophisticated saws and hammers can control system. The big innovation of the U-2. Still another is a large “clean room” be heard on the other side. (It’s worth aircraft was its low radar cross section. housing an advanced tape-laying machine noting that the original F-117 mock-up Skunk Works’ founder, the legendary that can rapidly produce large complex was made of wood.) Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson, once said aerodynamic shapes to extraordinary Weiss said much of the Skunk Works the key to success was limiting invention tolerances. On display are pieces of Skunk effort is in analysis. The division is always to “one miracle” per project. Works’ “Polecat” stealth RPA demonstra- looking for business, trying to anticipate The list of the division’s achievements tor and the tooling used to make it. what the services will need before they is long, ranging from the P-80—the first The largest building on the site used to know it themselves. During lean years, practical US jet fighter—to the F-104, the be the factory for the commercial L-1011 former Skunk Works general manager Ben U-2, the C-130, the SR-71 and its many widebody tri-jet, Lockheed’s last civilian Rich pitched the Air Force a significant variants, Have Blue and the F-117, and airliner. It is now divided between two upgrade to the U-2, with new engines, in later days, the F-22 and F-35 fighters. efforts. One is the giant P-791 Hybrid sensor payloads, and other improvements 30 AIR FORCE Magazine / June 2015 that resulted in almost an all-new aircraft. he wonders if this is “something the Air Nevertheless, “we’re pretty optimistic Those aircraft, though modified many Force and the nation really would want.” about it, we think it could be a real game times since, are still in use today and are There are “reasonable roadmaps”— changer, but it’s going to be a ways in expected to serve at least until 2020. both on the Skunk Works side and the the future before we would propose that Weiss offered observations on some of Air Force side—to add capability that as a direction we think is absolutely the futuristic technologies where Skunk would keep the U-2 “very viable” for critical to the nation.” Works is heading. many years to come. The U-2’s high operating altitude has given it sanctu- THE VALUE OF STEALTH SIXTH GENERATION FIGHTER ary from threats in all but a few heav- Speed is “one way to achieve surviv- Skunk Works is spending the time to ily defended areas. However, Weiss ability,” Weiss said, but effective passive “fully understand the requirements” of characterized the U-2 and RQ-4 Global signature management—stealth—makes what will be necessary to “maintain quanti- Hawk as intelligence, surveillance, and it possible to safely obtain intelligence tative advantage over our adversaries” and reconnaissance platforms useful only for in other ways that are “more persistent.” secure future air dominance when the F-22 the “uncontested environment.” If an aircraft can loiter, undetected, near and F-35 fighters are no longer considered an area of interest, it can soak up valu- state-of-the-art. The Air Force is already ISR AND HYPERSONICS able information for an extended period. inside the typical development time line Asked if the Air Force needs to go Weiss stridently disagrees with some to begin work on what would ultimately back to a high-speed ISR platform in the senior Navy officials who have discount- become a sixth generation fighter.
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