AT&T Government Solutions has been awarded two multi-year contracts managed by the U.S. Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation to develop live battlefield training systems, launching the company into the forefront of warfare training technology. The combined value of the 42-month contracts could reach $134 million. Under the Army's One Tactical Engagement Simulation System (OneTESS) contract, AT&T Government Solutions and its team of companies will develop the next generation "force-on-force" and "force-on-target" war game system in support of the Army's on-going transformation of live training. OneTESS will replace the current laser-based systems and enables the Army to train soldiers more efficiently, cost-effectively and realistically in a simulated battlefield environment. The contract is worth $74.1 million. Under the second contract, awarded by Lockheed Martin's Orlando-based Simulation, Training & Support (LM STS) company, AT&T Government Solutions will supply the communications infrastructure component of the National Training Center Objective Instrumentation System (NTC-OIS) contract, which is valued at up to $60 million. "Our role as the NTC-OIS Lead System Integrator (LSI) is to ensure that the Army receives the best value solution in support of program requirements," said Lisa Callahan, LM STS Program Director for Integrated Training Solutions. As subcontractor, AT&T Government Solutions will design, develop and implement a complex networking infrastructure for the Army's National Training Center in Ft. Irwin, Calif., a vast desert training area about the size of Rhode Island located between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. It will support voice, data and video communications, making it possible to create a realistic battlefield environment and allow trainers to review the battlefield action after training has concluded. The AT&T Government Solutions' Orlando-based OneTESS team includes General Dynamics Advance Information Systems of Tempe, Ariz.; United Defense of Arlington, Va.; FSCX Inc. of Lawton, Okla.; Icon Systems of San Diego; SRC of Atlanta; SRI International of Menlo Park, Calif.; SPARTA of Lake Forest, Calif.; MCR LLC of Vienna, Va.; Chenega Technology Services Corp. of Alexandria, Va.; and Applied Research Associates of Albuquerque, N.M. The NTC-OIS communications infrastructure team also includes FSCX, Icon Systems, MCR, and SRC as well as General Dynamics Network Systems of Needham, Mass., and Forkert Engineering and Surveying of Huntington Beach, Calif. "Our expertise in the field of system engineering and integration, modeling and simulation, our ability to partner with a range of companies large and small, and the deep experience and skills of our team gave us the edge," said Lou Addeo, president of AT&T Government Solutions. "Our team had outstanding technical and cost-effective proposals and as a result, our nation's troops will be better prepared than ever to face tomorrow's battlefield. We've been saying for some time that our company offers the government a broad range of professional services skills and these contract wins show we're a leader in the area of system integration and live training -- a core skill for these projects." The OneTESS system will eventually replace current live training systems and, unlike current battlefield training systems, will accommodate advanced weapons training and smart munitions. For example, OneTESS will allow soldiers to be trained in non-line-of-sight weaponry and electronic warfare. Using sensors embedded in weapons and other gear, OneTESS will be more realistic and less intrusive than current "laser tag" training methods and will eventually be designed to accommodate as many at 20,000 "entities" -- soldiers, tanks, weapons, etc. In addition, OneTESS will be deployable to remote locations and will be far less time-consuming for the Army to set up, maintain and break down a battlefield training exercise.