The Army has awarded Cole Engineering Services, Inc. (CESI) a potential $81 million prototype deal to provide the simulators for the service’s future live and virtual networked training capability, the Synthetic Training Environment (STE).
Army officials wrote in a June 28 notice that CESI was selected from a total of 11 vendors proposals, and was the single company to offer a comprehensive solution for both air and ground virtual trainers.
The Reconfigurable Virtual Collective Trainers (RVCT) will replace legacy simulators, with the Army looking to field a battalion set of new air and ground training platforms by fourth quarter of 2021 and reach Final Operational Capability by FY ’23.
Synthetic Training Environment is expected to eventually include at least 210 RVCT-Air simulators and over 650 RVCT-Ground systems once it reaches FOC, according to the Army.
“The RVCT is a mobile, transportable, modular, and scalable training capability with the minimum hardware necessary to represent form, fit, and function for the user to execute collective tasks,” Army officials wrote.
A total of 11 responses were received for the work, including eight for RVCT-Air, two for RVCT-ground and the one offering for a comprehensive solution, according to the Army.
Officials are expected to award a follow-on production contract at the completion of the prototyping phase.
“A follow-on effort could involve, though is not limited to, the potential requirement for continued development and baseline management, further scaling of the solution, integration of future Synthetic Training Environment capabilities, or integration of the capability to fit within the Department of Defense’s future state of operation and training requirements,” officials wrote.
Last month, the Army awarded $190 million in prototype deals to software firm VT MAK, a subsidiary of VT Systems, and Vricon, a Saab and DigitalGlobe joint venture, to build STE’s software backbone (Defense Daily, June 17).