A local defense tech firm has landed a major contract with the U.S. Army.

Image provided by Getty Images (DanielBendjy)

By Lucy Dillon – Contributing Writer, Orlando Business Journal

Sep 22, 2025

An Orlando company is preparing to double its workforce — and its manufacturing footprint — after securing an eight-figure defense contract.

Serious Simulations LLC will significantly bolster its operating size and employee count as a result of a $28 million contract with the U.S. Army’s Synthetic Training Environment Live Training Systems (STE LTS) initiative.

A veteran-owned small business, Serious Simulations creates virtual and augmented reality training products, among other technologies, for the defense and space industries. The new contract will see the firm produce simulated grenades and Claymore mines for the Army.

Founder and CEO Christopher Chambers, a West Point graduate and 20-year Army officer, said he is proud to “fill a training gap where there was no solution.” The simulations are the first high-intelligence devices for Army training, he said.

Expansion and growth

The $28 million contract includes a 30,000-piece part count, which Serious Simulations will expand its operations to fulfill.

The firm’s manufacturing space at 5707 Dot Com Court will double on Oct. 1, as it begins the process of taking over an adjacent 7,500-square-foot office space. From Oct. 1 through early December, Serious Simulations will prepare the next-door unit for contract-fulfilling work, including three production lines, an inventory cage and a shipping and receiving dock.

The firm, which currently employs 14 people, will also hire 16 new employees during the duration of the contract, more than doubling its workforce.

Chambers confirmed jobs will be added in the shipping and receiving, testing and assembling, and managerial and quality control sectors.

In a prepared statement, the CEO thanked the Army initiative for recognizing Serious Simulations’ commitment to innovation. He also alluded to future developments, noting the company can “expect to grow the reach of our proximity technology to benefit other training devices such as sUASs [small unmanned aircraft systems], IEDs [improvised explosive devices], anti-tank and anti-personnel mines.”

Chambers told Orlando Business Journal there are talks of securing international contracts in the future, expanding the global scope of the high-intelligence training technology.

The sim grenade operates like a real hand grenade, except it uses light and sound to recreate an explosion.

Serious Simulations LLC

Changing how the Army trains

For centuries, soldiers trained for combat with makeshift devices such as tennis balls, pine cones and rocks.

The “primitive” methods of the past, Chambers said, have existed well into the modern era, prompting the CEO to identify the need for technology which could address the gap.

The sim grenade technology has been in the works since 2018, with a patent application filed in 2019. Made with a soft outer shell, the lighter-weight grenade is easier to throw and practice with, giving soldiers more opportunities to get hands-on experience with combat weapons before taking to the battlefield.

Serious Simulations’ training devices can determine their exact proximity to soldiers and vehicles, providing realistic, real-time damage updates based on data collected. Once a training exercise is complete, soldiers read the feedback, understand where or how they may have been “injured” in the simulation and can assess any necessary “medical response.”

Chambers said the devices create a “multi-level training exercise,” giving soldiers the opportunity to work with one another to develop responses to situations that could happen on the battlefield, including equipment set-up and serious medical emergencies.

The status of a soldier flashes green when they’re unharmed, but swiftly changes to red when the technology detects the soldier in a blast radius where injury or death is possible.

A demonstration throwing of Serious Simulations’ sim grenades

Serious Simulations LLC

Preparing for battle

Though Serious Simulations is no stranger to the Army — the company has held periodic contracts with the Army since 2022 — the new contract is worth significantly more and underscores the firm’s growth over time.

In December, the adjacent office space is expected to open and kick off production. By fall 2026, Chambers said Serious Simulations will begin delivering parts to the Army, potentially filling a centuries-long gap in combat training for U.S. soldiers.

‘Military simulation capital of the world’

Chambers, who started Serious Simulations in the University of Central Florida’s Business Incubation Program at Research Park, refers to Orlando as “the military simulation capital of the world.”

Orlando boasts a modeling, simulation and training sector that employs more than 45,000 individuals and is worth more than $6 billion, according to the National Center for Simulation and Orlando Economic Partnership data.

“It’s a wonderful, thriving system that continues to grow here in Central Florida,” Wayne Fogel, director of business development for the UCF’s Institute for Simulation and Training, said.

The ever-expanding defense sector leans on STEM-oriented UCF to provide readily available and well-trained talent, Fogel said. As the industry continues to grow, he added, opportunities will increase and create more of a demand on the university to provide such talent.

“We are developing a workforce that is going to be extremely capable of providing these products,” Fogel said. “The industry is positioned correctly here to be able to expand and roll these products out to the government.”

Chambers confirmed Serious Simulations — as of early September, before the period of hiring for the new contract begins — employs six UCF graduates and a graduate of the Winter Park-based Full Sail University.

“Developing cutting-edge technology like that is phenomenal,” Fogel said of Serious Simulations’ developments. “It’s just the sort of thing we’re looking for here in Orlando, having that entrepreneurial spirit of saying, ‘I can tackle this problem.’”

Serious Simulations was previously recognized as one of OBJ’s 2018 Innovation in Technology Awards honorees.

Serious Simulations LLC

Founded: 2014

Address: 5707 Dot Com Ct., Ste. 1043, Oviedo, FL 32765

Employees: 20

Website: https://serioussimulations.com/