Lockheed To Use UAE-designed AI For All Aircraft

[Philip the Arab]

ABU DHABI: Lockheed Martin is using an AI algorithm built and tested by a group of UAE interns to detect paint and primer defects on its airframes and plans to use it across the company’s planes.

Demonstrated at IDEX 2021 here, the system helps improve the speed and accuracy of quality inspections on aircraft production lines in the U.S.

Although the company did not reveal what aircraft are using the new AI solution, the company ultimately aims to “scale it across all kinds of its in-house aircraft product lines,” a company spokesperson told me.



Hala Alzargani, lead engineer at Lockheed Martin’s Center for Innovation and Security Solutions (CISS), told Breaking D the project’s main objective was to save time and cut costs.

“As the work progressed, we were able to digitize the time-consuming process of inspecting aircraft manually and delivered a real-world solution that drives significant time and cost savings as a result,” she explained.

However, “I truly believe that nothing can be fully digitized, so technology should be used to reach the most efficiency of any system and that’s what our mission focused on,” she said.


Lockheed Martin’s CISS hosts merit-based internship programs and implements a series of technology development programs for UAE engineers and industry professionals.


One of the project’s main challenges, according to Hamad Al Nuaimi, payload design intern at Lockheed Martin, was to identify the defects which required the most time, effort and labor.

“This project has been in the works with a previous team of interns, but we evolved it into an AI-based technology,” he said, “a huge responsibility achieved through high coordination and mentorship from the aero team at Lockheed.”


Mohamed Al Salami, another intern, stressed the importance of implementing AI into the defense sector.

“AI has become very important as we are indeed witnessing the fourth industrial revolution based on implementing this trend in all sectors,” he said. “In our case, I learned how AI can become more accurate to the point that it detects anything in a more efficient way and how to apply agile software development practices to develop real-world AI projects.”

The CISS program provides specialist training in artificial intelligence development and unmanned aerial vehicle design, defense simulation exercises, business administration skills, and IT systems management, allowing students to work on real-world projects that positively impact the aerospace and defense industry.

Lockheed To Use UAE-designed AI For All Aircraft - Breaking Defense

"As the work progressed, we were able to digitize the time-consuming process of inspecting aircraft manually and delivered a real-world solution that drives significant time and cost savings as a result," Hala Alzargani, with Lockheed Martin, explained.

breakingdefense.com