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Orlando Sentinel Editorial
Our take: Computer modeling, training and sim industry
March 6, 2013
Pre-emptive strikers
If medals were awarded for foresight, leaders of Orlando’s computer modeling, training and simulation industry would deserve to be decorated. As the Sentinel recently reported, a delegation representing the local industry went to Washington, D.C., last week to tout its merits to members of Congress, Pentagon officials and defense industry executives.
Orlando is home to the nation’s largest computer modeling, simulation and training cluster, with at least 150 companies and more than 12,500 employees. But the magnet for that cluster, a joint U.S. military operation that awards contracts to companies for high-tech systems, could be terminated or transferred in the next round of base closings.
That next round isn’t scheduled until 2015, but the team from Orlando is wise to get ahead of the game. It would be a serious blow to Central Florida’s economy if the next base closure commission were to target Orlando’s facilities. The cluster it has generated has added badly needed diversity, high-wage jobs and more than $3 billion a year to Central Florida’s economy.
The timing of the delegation’s visit, just before the federal budget sequester kicked in, also was auspicious. With the military now facing hundreds of billions in spending cuts over the next decade, computer-simulated training will be an increasingly attractive, lower-cost alternative to conventional training.
That would make keeping Orlando’s military operations a win, not just for the region’s economy, but also for U.S. taxpayers.
