Anteon to build Army live-training ranges

Anteon International Corp. has won a $350 million contract from the Army to design and build live-training ranges that digitally gather and record data on the training for quick feedback and reviews.

Under a five-year contract, Anteon of Fairfax, Va., will install training ranges that simulate battlefield conditions and collect data necessary to support after-action reviews.

Anteon will design and install dynamic, modular and scalable training solutions for individual, team and combined arms soldier training in a live fire environment. The digital multipurpose training range and battle area complexes are to improve the quality of training for Army infantry and armor.

"Ranges play a critical role in getting our soldiers properly prepared to execute their missions to fight the war against terrorism around the world," said S. Daniel Johnson, Anteon's chief operating officer.

The work, which involves both digital, multipurpose training range and battle-area complexes, will be done at roughly 30 Army installations at home and abroad, the company said. About 200 employees will be assigned to the project.

The Army's Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation awarded the contract. Anteon's team includes Northrop Grumman Corp., Los Angeles; Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, Md.; Intercoastal Electronics Inc., Mesa, Ariz.; Riptide Software Inc. of Orlando, Fla.; G2 Software Systems Inc., San Diego; and Cubic Corp., San Diego.

"We've been doing this kind of work, which is fairly sophisticated and complex, for about the last 10 years for this customer," Johnson said.

The latest award puts Anteon, which has more than 8,600 employees and annual sales of $1 billion, in a strong position to win additional simulation and training work in the Defense Department, Johnson said.

The live-training range program is to enhance soldier training by providing a safe yet stressful environment to prepare soldiers for actual combat, said Shirley Rubens, product manager for digitized training with the Army's Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation.

"The program supports the Army's transformation and its move to modularity," Rubens said.

The new technology will benefit soldiers who operate armor and mechanized vehicles, Johnson said. To assess their performance, the company will install digital instrumentation throughout the training facilities as well as on the tanks and vehicles, he said.

The equipment records all activity during training and enables immediate after-action debriefings, he said.

Simulation and training work accounts for about one-quarter of the company's business, he said. Anteon also does training and simulation for the Air Force, Navy and joint forces.

Anteon developed the Army's first instrumented urban warfare training site at Fort Polk, La., and continues to provide standards-compliant support to similar training efforts at numerous locations, he said.

In December, the company won a $10 million subcontract from Lockheed Martin to provide a digital video system to record urban warfare training at the Army's National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif.

That project is part of the Combat Training Center-Objective Instrumentation System at the Army's National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif. The training is done in models of urban terrain, such as buildings and streets, built by the Army Corps of Engineers. The models are outfitted with cameras and microphones to record units' training.

The payoff can be measured in both cost and time, Johnson said. From a time standpoint, the system will provide immediate feedback to crews on the training they have just completed. From a cost perspective, it is more efficient than previous methods, he said.

"It will take less training with this kind of digitized feedback to get a crew to the same level of proficiency than it would if you didn't have it," Johnson said.

Senior Writer William Welsh can be reached at wwelsh@postnewsweektech.com