AT&T wins pair of Army battlefield training contracts

AT&T Government Solutions Inc. won $15 million in follow-on work on two contracts to develop the Army's next generation of live battlefield training systems.

Under the first contract, worth $5.8 million and called the One Tactical Engagement Simulation System, AT&T will be the prime contractor on the project's third phase. It will focus on developing realistic war-game technologies that simulate non-line-of-sight weaponry.

The new system will replace the Army's laser-tag technology, and will require both wired and wireless networks to determine whether a target was hit and how much damage it sustained.

Under a second contract, worth $9.1 million and called the Combat Training Center Objective Instrumentation System, AT&T is a subcontractor responsible for developing a communications network for mobile voice, data and video traffic at the Army National Training Center in Fort Irwin, Calif. Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda, Md., is the project's prime contractor.

AT&T will design and implement a complex communications network infrastructure at Fort Irwin. The backbone network will handle high-speed communications that simulate a battlefield.

The Army originally awarded both OneTESS and CTC-OIS in April 2004. The two programs are managed by the Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation.

AT&T Government Solutions of Vienna, Va., provides telecom and IT services to the federal government.