RIYADH: Automatic defensive systems that respond to threats in real time without human intervention are “hugely important” in modern air defense, a senior executive at Lockheed Martin told Arab News at the World Defense Show in Riyadh on Thursday.
Joseph Rank, chief executive and vice president at Lockheed Martin Saudi Arabia and Africa, said the ability to connect detection systems directly to interceptors without delay is critical when responding to fast-moving threats such as missiles and drones.
“Integration is hugely important today. There’s so many threats, and the way you deal with threats in a real-time basis is by having everything integrated,” Rank said.
He described systems in which sensors identify incoming projectiles and automatically communicate with defensive assets.
“Your sensors or your radars have to see the incoming missiles or drones, but you don’t want to wait and have a human in loop … The sensors communicate automatically to the missiles that are going to knock those out of the air,” he said.
