Serious Simulations LLC's Chris Chambers was happy to see his Orlando-based small business won a U.S. Army contract alongside defense giants like Lockheed Martin Corp. and General Dynamics Corp.
Serious Simulations, where Chambers is CEO, in March was awarded a contract worth up to $2.8 million to prototype simulated hand grenades, mines and similar devices. The Army this spring awarded three other similar contracts all to much bigger businesses than the 20-person Serious Simulations.
Regardless of its size now, Serious Simulations has a chance for significant growth after securing this Army deal. If it presents the Army with an acceptable prototype, Serious Simulations may begin mass production of the simulated grenade as soon as the end of the year, which would create the need for new hires, Chambers told Orlando Inno.
Tech with a bang
For years, hand grenades have been a gap in Army training, Chambers said. Soldiers may use live grenades on a range, or use training grenades that are too hard or dangerous to throw near other soldiers in exercises, said Chambers, who himself served in the infantry. “We never trained with grenades in maneuvers. We rarely went to the range and trained with grenades.”
That’s why Serious Simulations, which designs training hardware and software, began working on a simulated grenade in 2018, applying for a patent in 2019. The firm’s “sim grenade” is designed like a real grenade, but it’s covered in a soft shell to make it safer to throw.
It “explodes” by emitting a sound and flash of light. When it detonates, the grenade communicates with receivers worn by soldiers to determine if they were in the grenade’s blast radius, letting the soldiers know if they are killed or injured. The grenade integrates into the Army’s existing multiple integrated laser engagement system (M.I.L.E.S.) training program, and medics-in-training can read the signal sent from the sim grenade to determine how to treat a soldier “injured” by the grenade.
The grenade offers the Army to plug a gap in its training, and the branch will oversee Serious Simulations’ development of the sim grenade this year. If the Army is pleased with the progress of the design, Serious Simulations will enter the production phase of the contract. Chambers said he expects to know by the end of the year if his company will begin production of the grenades.
If that happens, Serious Simulations will need to ramp up its workforce, Chambers said. The company occupies three suites in the University of Central Florida Research Park Incubator, but Chambers said Serious Simulations will move out to its own facility. “If we had a perfect world where these are adopted in large numbers, we’d be hiring dozens of people.”
'Huge potential'
Meanwhile, the sim grenade device is gaining a lot of traction in a fairly small amount of time. Serious Simulations previously landed a spot on a government contract to provide the grenades to an unnamed federal agency.
Still, the Army contract is the biggest one yet for Serious Simulations, Chambers said. “This has huge potential if it really went to full implementation, not only in our own Army. We have militaries overseas that are interested.”
Defense contractors are a major part of Central Florida’s technology sector, and the region wins billions of dollars in federal deals each year. For example, there was $6.2 billion of federal contract work ongoing in metro Orlando in fiscal year 2021, according to federal contracting data.
Orlando’s modeling, simulation and training sector, a $6 billion industry, is a reason so much defense work happens in Central Florida. That industry continues to grow, and membership to the simulation trade organization, the Orlando-based National Center for Simulation, grew during the pandemic as more companies sought opportunities in the sector and set up offices in Orlando, NCS President George Cheros previously told Orlando Inno.
Businesses also are attracted to Orlando’s simulation industry because of the large talent pool at UCF, though Cheros added the demand outpaces the supply of talented workers. “The pipeline of workers we’re going to need in the future is growing faster than we can supply.”
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