N.B. software firm lands Lockheed contract

TECHNOLOGY: Fredericton's Applied Courseware Technology to supply software to Joint Strike Fighter project

BY TALI FOLKINS
Telegraph-Journal

FREDERICTON - A small Fredericton software firm is planning to boost its staffing by as much as four times over the next few years thanks to a recently netted contract from aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, the company's president says.

Gerry Costello, founder and president of Applied Courseware Technology, says he expects his company to be making tens of millions of dollars over the coming decades and tripling or quadrupling in size over the next two or three years.

Gerry Costello, president and founder of Applied Courseware Technology, says his company has won a software contract with Lockheed Martin for their Joint Strike Fighter aircraft.

The growth, he says, will be due to anticipated work on Lockheed's $200-billion US F-35 Joint Strike Fighter project, the largest military procurement project in history.

Last fall, he says, Lockheed selected Applied Courseware Technology to do "instructional system development" work for the entire project, although it did not make the selection public. The work will involve Applied Courseware Technology's main area of expertise, designing software for analyzing and designing training systems.

Lockheed has chosen Applied Courseware Technology software to be the "repository" of all training analysis and design information to be used in the Joint Strike Fighter project - a kind of computer-based library of all the project's training-related information, he says.

This includes details about every task that Joint Strike Fighter pilots will perform - what training each task requires, who has to be trained, how much training they will need, how much it will cost and so on.

Lockheed made public the first purchase order of this work earlier this month. On May 14, it announced it had selected Applied Courseware Technology and another Canadian company, BNH Expert Software, of St. Laurent, Que., to provide "instructional system development" tools for the System Development and Demonstration phase of its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter megaproject. The two awards, Lockheed said, were worth a combined $400,000 US.

Applied Courseware Technology, Mr. Costello says, was awarded the bulk of the $400,000, although he declines to give a precise amount. He expects it to be only the tip of the iceberg of work Applied Courseware Technology will get on or stemming from the JSF project in the coming years.

"It's just the starting point," he says.
The purchase order announced this month, Mr. Costello says, is just for the first phase of the first version of the Joint Strike Fighter project, the "system development and demonstration" phase, which will involve, according to Lockheed, 22 aircraft. The entire Joint Strike Fighter project will involve a total of 2,500 aircraft, for both the U.S. and its allies, in a number of different versions or variants.

Although it's impossible to say how much the work is likely to be worth to Applied Courseware Technology over the 50-year span of the Joint Strike Fighter project, it could easily run into the tens of millions, Mr. Costello says.

The Joint Strike Fighter work, Mr. Costello says, will also give Applied Courseware Technology a leg up in competing for similar work in other branches of the U.S. military, because technologies selected for the Joint Strike Fighter project are expected to become the standard for use throughout the U.S. Department of Defense.

"There's a very high expectation that our technology will be used for most major military programs in the U.S. through the coming years," he says. "That's big. That's very big."

The awarding of the Joint Strike Fighter work, he says, comes after Applied Courseware Technology spent about $4.5 million on research and development, the bulk of it to perfect technology it will be providing to the Joint Strike Fighter project, from the mid-1990s on.

"It's been a significant investment for Applied Courseware - it's nice to get the recognition from the fellows at Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Department of Defense," he says.

As is typical for IT firms, Applied Courseware Technology's size has fluctuated since it was founded in 1988, ranging from half a dozen to about 50 at different times, Mr. Costello says. It now employs 12 people.

Lockheed Martin Selects Two International Vendors For F-35 JSF Aircraft Training System

Canadian firms awarded first major training system contract to provide key software tools for world's most advanced air combat aircraft

ORLANDO, Fla., May 14, 2003 - Awards to two Canadian firms for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft's Instructional System Development (ISD) tools signal a continued international presence on the Lockheed Martin-led team to produce an initial 22 aircraft in the program's System Development and Demonstration phase. Applied Courseware Technology, Inc., Fredericton, New Brunswick, and BNH Expert Software, Inc., St. Laurent, Quebec, received combined awards worth in excess of (US) $400,000.

These ISD tools will greatly enhance the efficiency of training team to automate and integrate processes previously achieved with standalone databases. Applied Courseware Technology and BNH were selected from an original competitive field of 71 U.S. and international suppliers.

"The multiservice F-35 JSF fighter aircraft will advance capabilities well into the 21st century and we are committed to provide the latest training and support systems necessary to ensure effective support for the aircraft and its crews," said Lockheed Martin Information Systems President Dan Crowley. "Due to technologies made available through contracts such as these, pilot and maintainer training for the F-35 JSF aircraft, as well as integrated support functions, will truly make this the most supportable combat aircraft ever produced."

Plans call for more than 2,500 aircraft over the life of the program, a cornerstone of future defense capability for the United States and its allied partners. Variants of the F-35 will be fielded beginning around 2008 to replace current aircraft including the A-10, F-16, F/A-18C/D, AV-8B Harrier, the Royal Navy's Sea Harrier and the Royal Air Force's Harrier GR.7. The joint service aircraft will provide high lethality, maneuverability, survivability and maintainability at an affordable cost.

The F-35's final assembly takes place in Texas with training and support systems developed in Lockheed Martin's Orlando facilities. Lockheed Martin Information Systems is responsible for the management, design, development, and delivery of integrated pilot and maintenance training system under the 10-year contract worth up to $750 million.

Lockheed Martin is a leader in the design, development, installation, operation and integration of training and simulation systems for global defense markets. In 2002, Frost & Sullivan recognized Lockheed Martin for its leadership in the United States military training and simulation industry with the 2002 Market Engineering Leadership Award.

Capabilities in the Lockheed Martin training portfolio span the training continuum of live, virtual and constructive domains for flight, naval and ground systems applications. Lockheed Martin focuses on providing total training solutions by integrating the best products and services available ranging from high fidelity virtual simulators to modern wargaming models to full-service schoolhouse operations. Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) is a global enterprise with core businesses in systems integration, space, aeronautics, and technology services.

Contact:
Michael Mulleavey, 407-306-1730, e-mail mike.mulleavey@lmco.com

For additional information, visit the website www.lockheedmartin.com/lmis

IT firm lands big contract

BY CANADAEAST NEWS SERVICE

A small Fredericton software firm is planning to boost its staffing by as much as four times over the next few years thanks to a recently netted contract from aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, the company's president says.

Gerry Costello, founder and president of Applied Courseware Technology, says he expects his company to be making tens of millions of dollars over the coming decades and tripling or quadrupling in size over the next two or three years.

The growth, he says, will be due to anticipated work on Lockheed's $200-billion US F-35 Joint Strike Fighter project, the largest military procurement project in history.

Last fall, he says, Lockheed selected Applied Courseware Technology to do "instructional system development" work for the entire project, although it did not make the selection public.

The work will involve Applied Courseware Technology's main area of expertise, designing software for analyzing and designing training systems.

Although it's impossible to say how much the work is likely to be worth to Applied Courseware Technology over the 50-year span of the Joint Strike Fighter project, it could easily run into the tens of millions, Mr. Costello said.

As is typical for IT firms, Applied Courseware Technology's size has fluctuated since it was founded in 1988, ranging from half a dozen to about 50 at different times, Mr. Costello says. It now employs 12 people.