Menu
Selling D.C. on local simulation industry
By Richard Burnett, Orlando Sentinel
12:49 pm, March 3, 2013
Central Florida’s training-simulation industry sent a lobbying team of industry and community leaders to Washington last week, just before the deadline for the federal deficit-reduction deal known as the sequester.
And while the sequester’s $1.2 trillion in cuts over a decade — half of them from defense spending — were certainly a big topic of conversation, the group also wanted to make a preemptive strike against Congress’ next base-closing initiative, scheduled to start in 2015.
“As Congress looks at potential defense cuts, we plan to sell simulation as one of the best means of saving taxpayers dollars,” said U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Park.
In an interview before the D.C. trip, simulation-industry executive Tom Baptiste said local leaders would tell “the story of Team Orlando, at every level of government — from Capitol Hill to the Defense Department.” The goal is to demonstrate that the region’s cluster of training-simulation agencies and businesses should not be broken up by ordering the shutdown or transfer of the military installations that research and award contracts for high-tech training systems, said Baptiste, president of the Orlando-based National Center for Simulation.
The local group met with Central Florida’s congressional delegation, Pentagon officials and representatives of large defense contractors active in the simulation industry.
Fretting the sequester
Although it is home to what is far and away the country’s largest collection of training-simulation companies and military agencies, Central Florida may have well-founded concerns about both the sequester cuts and the next base-closing initiative.
Most experts say training simulators historically weather defense-budget cuts, because they cost the military far less than live training does. But even simulation may not emerge unscathed from the sequester, said John Williams, spokesman for the National Training and Simulation Association, a trade group based in northern Virginia.
“Because of the way it is structured, there’s no flexibility in these cuts,” he said. “It requires all categories of the Pentagon’s budget to be cut, including the operations-and-maintenance account. And that’s where you find training systems. We’re concerned there will be big repercussions — if not immediately, certainly down the road.”
Williams also said Central Florida was wise to get a jump on future base-closing activity by getting on Congress’ radar now. According to Mica’s office, more than 27,000 jobs are directly tied to the local training-simulation industry, with average annual salaries of nearly $70,000 and a total economic impact of $5 billion a year.
Virginia viewed as rival
But the Orlando area has some serious rivals for the military’s training-simulation work. Virginia, for example, touts an industry with more than 14,000 jobs, nearly 190 companies and an economic impact of $3.1 billion a year, according to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. Since 2007, companies there have announced 19 new projects involving $100 million in investment and 1,500 new jobs, the agency said.
Central Florida views Virginia, with its proximity to Washington, as a potentially formidable rival if the Pentagon decides to consolidate its simulation bureaucracy as part of a base-closing initiative.
“Orlando is one of the most important hubs for this kind of technology in the country,” said Williams, the trade association spokesman. “When you establish a critical mass of technology in a certain location, it becomes a magnet. That is part of what we’re also seeing here in Virginia and the Washington area.”
Williams noted that Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell is a consistent promoter of his state’s simulation industry. And U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., is founder and co-chairman of the Congressional Modeling and Simulation Caucus — lawmakers from states with simulation firms.
rburnett@tribune.com or 407-420-5256
