SAIC Lands $38.5 Million Simulation Contract

A team led by Science Applications International Corp. of San Diego has won a contract to design and build a training and simulation system called the One Semi-Automated Forces (OneSAF) Objective System Program for the Army Simulation, Training and Instrumentation Command.

The order is worth up to $38.5 million over a life of up to four years. SAIC will provide systems integration on a team that includes Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda, Md.; Quality Research Inc. of Huntsville, Ala.; and Dynamics Research Corp. of Andover, Mass.

Buck Leahy, vice president of corporate development for SAIC, said OneSAF will provide trainers, researchers and analysts the tools to conduct a wide range of simulations under a variety of environmental circumstances, from smaller squads operating in urban locales to entire armies in a theater of operations.

"The Army can't afford to have real people pretending to be all the players at one time. It is cost-prohibitive and scale-prohibitive," Leahy said. "One person can operate an SAF representing anywhere from dozens to hundreds of people."

The SAIC team will design and build the system infrastructure for OneSAF, as well as integrate the products of other OneSAF contractors, such as elements of the Synthetic Natural Environment, Knowledge Engineering/Knowledge Acquisition Tools and an After-Action Review System.

"The Army today has several semi-automated versions" of training programs, Leahy said. "They're not compatible, and the cost of maintaining the different systems is [high]. OneSAF is a new design, a new program. Eventually we will be replacing the capabilities of the legacy SAFs, but we want to leverage their [systems]. There will be some reuse of the work the government has paid for already."