Lockheed Martin to open Digital Engagement Center in Honolulu

Lockheed Martin opened its seventh DEC in Brussels on 17 March 2025. (Lockheed Martin)

Lockheed Martin plans to open an eighth Digital Engagement Center (DEC) in Honolulu, Hawaii, Andrew Boyle, the company's head of communications for Northern Europe, confirmed to Janes on 9 June after it spotted an online job vacancy for the centre.

DECs provide operational analysis and wargaming and can be used to identify defence requirements.

Boyle said Lockheed Martin's DECs in the United States are located in Arlington, Virginia; Moorestown, New Jersey; Huntsville, Alabama; Grand Prairie, Texas; Owego, New York; and Manassas, Virginia. A seventh DEC opened in Brussels, Belgium, on 17 March.

John Neilson, Lockheed Martin's director, international media and corporate affairs, told Janes on 9 June, “The DEC is geared towards being a reconfigurable space where customers and potential customers … can conduct operational analysis in a digital environment that's linked to our ‘Lighthouse' innovation centre in the US and can also be linked to others. This is important because modern forces need a mission integrator – a way to unite platforms, networks, and people to deliver on a specific mission need.”

Explaining the background, Neilson said, “Since its inception, the defence industrial base has followed a platform-centric model, providing familiar and critical assets, including satellites, aircraft, ships, and air-defence systems. However, this approach alone is no longer good enough for today's demands. With our 21st century security model, we're leading an industry shift to a mission-centric approach that uses the latest digital technologies to network these platforms together, vastly improving their effectiveness and deterrent value.”