Commissioner's Corner: Modeling, simulation and our military impact

Orange County is known worldwide for its exceptional theme parks and attractions. However, our local economy is more diversified than many of the millions of tourists that visit each year may believe. Orange County is home to many other high-tech industries including life sciences and health care, optics and photonics, and digital media. Our county is also a national leader in the modeling, simulation, and training (MS&T) industry based at Central Florida Research Park in east Orange County.

The origins of our MS&T cluster date back to March 20, 1950. On that day, the secretaries of the Army and Navy agreed to collaborate on future training and training devices. In 1965, the Army’s Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation and the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division moved to Naval Training Center Orlando from the programs’ previous home in New York. Over the next two decades many more federal training directorates would move to Orlando. In the 1980s, these commands moved from the Navy base to their present site in Research Park adjacent to the University of Central Florida. Today, all five armed services, the Department of Homeland Security and more than 100 private companies are part of Orange County’s MS&T cluster.

The MS&T industry provides critical training aids for our warfighters. Before the advent of modern simulation technology, simulations were often rudimentary and abstract. Today, soldiers can simulate a dynamic battlefield complete with many aircraft and armored vehicles to better prepare them for combat. This training is vital to ensuring that our troops return home safely from dangerous missions overseas. Other simulators developed in our MS&T cluster allow battlefield medics to practice lifesaving procedures without putting lives at risk and train pilots to navigate through hazardous conditions.

Much of this military training technology developed here in Orange County has real world applications for everyone in our community. Training aids originally developed for the armed forces are now being used here at home to enhance training for people in a variety of capacities from emergency medical technicians, theme park managers, surgeons, oil and gas workers, and even teachers. Other spinoffs from MS&T research include applications in the video game production and animation industries.

The MS&T industry based out of Research Park has a very tangible economic impact on our community. The industry employs 27,000 people in Florida and adds $4.8 billion to the state’s gross domestic product. The 120 companies in Central Florida’s Research Park alone employ more than 8,500 people; the average salary of these jobs is $70,000.

Orange County is committed to growing the high tech MS&T industry in Research Park. The county created a blue ribbon commission to tell our MS&T story, educate key audiences about the reach, breadth, and diversity of this key economic driver, and to bring awareness regarding the highly synergistic nature of MS&T to other key sectors of our economy.

I am extremely proud of the industry-leading work our modeling, simulation, and training cluster does to prepare both our military and civilian workers to better perform their jobs. As always, if you have any questions or concerns about any issue facing Orange County, please do not hesitate to contact me or my staff, Edgar Robinson and Lynette Rummel. We can be reached at 407-836-7250 or by email and [email protected]