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By Bill Orben
Orlando Business Journal
U.S. Rep. John L. Mica, R-Fla., has organized a series of meetings in Washington, D.C., Feb. 26 aimed at boosting Orlando’s $3 billion simulation and training industry and blunting the impacts of possible defense cuts.
Mica, Tom Baptiste, president of the National Center for Simulation, and local business and industry leaders are slated to meet with U.S. Department of Defense leaders, military contractors and U.S. senators and representatives to make a case for expanding simulation and training activities in Orlando.
The modeling and simulation industry employs more than 27,000 people in Florida with an annual salary of more than $69,000 and has a statewide annual impact of $4.8 billion. The 100 local modeling and simulation companies employ 12,500 and have combined revenue of $3 billion annually.
“As Congress looks at potential U.S. Department of Defense cuts, we plan to sell simulation as one of the best means of saving taxpayer dollars,” Mica said in a prepared statement. Florida could lose 56,000 jobs as the result of $1.2 trillion worth of U.S. Department of Defense cuts included in a budget cutting law known as sequestration set to occur March 1.
