TSIS Recap

The 2022 Training & Simulation Industry Symposium (TSIS) hosted it’s first in person event since 2019 at the Rosen Centre Hotel in Orlando, Florida. In fact, this year’s symposium was the largest to date with over 950 registrants. The symposium provided attendees updated information on training and simulation procurement requirements from the Air Force, Navy, Army, Marines, DoD, and the Joint Medical simulation community. Additionally, the symposium hosted four industry panels that addressed challenges and opportunities faced by companies large and small. NDIA Central Florida chapter and NDIA Women in Defense Central Florida, along with NTSA, co-hosted the annual conference to facilitate transparency for the services and to indicate long-term business development and strategic directions for industry.

Following the welcome and opening comments by RADM (Ret) James Robb, president of NTSA, Day one was dedicated to the Sea Services which opened with the Program Manager Training Systems, USMC. Highlights included a kick-off with LtCol Marcus Reynolds, Program Manager, Training Systems, Marine Corps Systems Command. Training Systems and Sustainment followed and then Ms. Elizabeth Tygart discussed Synthetic Training Systems. Finally, LtCol Troy Peterson concluded the USMC presentations with information about Range Training Systems.

The Navy followed in the afternoon with a keynote video presentation from RADM Peter Garvin, Commander, Naval Education Training Center, who discussed some of the challenges and opportunities the Navy foresees in the future. He was followed by the Skipper of the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division and NSA Orlando, CAPT Dan Covelli, who talked about the organization’s many accomplishments, organization responsibilities and how to do business in the future. CAPT Covelli was followed by nine key acquisition and R&D leaders from the Navy. They covered a broad waterfront of information that ranged from aviation to surface and subsurface training systems. There were also updates on the Ready Relevant Learning Training System, International Programs, and R&D efforts.

The second day started off with the Program Executive Officer, Simulation, Training and Instrumentation, Ms. Karen Saunders, SES. Her comments set the stage for Army Training and the continued importance of relevant and realistic training from all domains (live, virtual, and constructive).

She was followed by personnel from Solder Training (PM ST), TADSS Support Operations (PL TSO), Synthetic Environment (PM SE), International Programs (IPO), and Cyber, Test & Training (PM CT2). Further discussions were provided by program personnel supporting the new STE-IS Platform Development Kit, Digital Engineering, and the Army Synthetic Training environment from the perspective of the Combined Arms Center for Training and the Cross Functional Team for the Synthetic Training Environment.

Rounding out the morning was a special presentation by RADM Robb and Sean Osmond to Ms. Vicki Casas and the Tunnels 2 Towers Foundation. NTSA presented a check from the proceeds of the NTSA I/ITSEC 5K run.

After lunch Mr. Mike Harris, Executive Director of ACC-Orlando provided insight to some of the Contracting Command’s on-going efforts and conducted the first in-person Program Acquisition Lead Time (PALT) session since they were discontinued two years ago due to COVID-19.

Other notable briefings were presented by Col Beers, Commander, Air Force Modeling and Simulations Agency (AFAMS) who discussed the importance of more efficient and effective training utilizing large scale shared resources. He was followed by Ms. Margaret Merkle who introduced the Innovation Match Game which will be in use during I/ITSEC 2022. To bring in the last presentation of the day, Mr. Jude Tomasello, Program Manager, Medical Simulation and Training Program Management Office, Defense Health Agency discussed how the Defense Health Agency is implementing enterprise health solutions throughout the Department of Defense.

Panel sessions during TSIS focused on using Price to Win in Captures, Best Value Services, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, and Model Based Systems Engineering.