'HIT A BULLET WITH A BULLET': Lockheed Martin CEO highlights how AI can improves missile defense

Well, we are starting technology of all types into our systems. It is vastly changed from Desert Storm, Desert Shield. What we are doing now, especially with AI, we created our internal AI center in the year 2020. We have a pipeline and a partnership with Jensen's company, with NVIDIA, to supply the GPUs we need for national security missions that we are pursuing. One of the missions we are pursuing actually that uses AI extensively is counter-drone. They are designed for ballistic missile interception, to hit a bullet with a bullet in space, destroy incoming ballistic missiles, then our people, our bases, our allies. Along that, we have to be able to match with technology other threats. And we want to match the threat to the cause of our counter-threat. What we're doing using AI to develop a counter-drone system with three elements. Call it SANCTUM. It senses small drones coming at you, maybe a swarm or one at a time. Can identify using AI if that drone is a threat, if it is friendly, is it a target? Then it can try to predict with AI where that drone is going to go, so that we can intercept it, destroy it. Along that, we have MORPHEUS, with trials to figure out how to use high-power microwave on another drone to fly next to the target drone and zap it with a high-powered microwave, destroy it, then move on to the next. This drone that we're building with the help of AI will enable us to attack 150 different drones, 50 different drones without firing weaponry. Another piece of the system, we have electronic attack, also physical attack. A way we did, we converted using technology a few ways. The standard missile that we have, Apache helicopter we build, is an air-to-ground missile. So what we asked the team to do, think about, since the Army has so many relatively cheap missiles in stockpile, can we convert an air-to-ground missile off a helicopter to a ground-to-air missile to hit and destroy a drone cheaply? Match cheap drone with cheap missile. We are showing that we can do that as well. We have a pack of Hellfire missiles reconfigured with new technology, connected with SANCTUM AI, and destroy incoming change drones. NVIDIA has been a great partner for us in this.

We absolutely can, Maria. A few months ago, in discussions with partners, the Pentagon, we said we can quadruple precision strike missiles. We said we can do that, do it with supply chain partners. And very tough needs, Boeing, Patriot missile seeker, Aerojet Rocketdyne, solid rocket motors, a great set of partners stepped up with us, said we can hit those new production rates. In our company, we started building already for the production rates that we're going to see. We already spent $1.25 billion on new facilities, capital expenditures, investments we already paid to get this thing rolling. Now, erroneous reports in the press say we're not as an industry team investing yet. We are absolutely investing. I know our partners are too. We've got a billion dollars left on the way to $9 billion total next year to make sure the U.S. can protect itself from awful threats from the air, from space, et cetera. And our industry partners are teaming up with us to do that.