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/

Serious Simulations awarded a Production Contract for Grenade and Claymore Training Systems

Orlando FL (August 14, 2025) – Orlando-based Serious Simulations has been awarded a significant production contract for simulated grenades and Claymore mines with their patented Proximity Technology for the U.S. Army’s Synthetic Training Environment Live Training Systems (STE LTS) initiative.

Serious Simulations embarked on a prototype refinement contract to customize its patented proximity technology for grenades and mines for specific Army needs in 2023.  The development contract was hugely successful in multiple soldier test events, technical tests, and environmental tests, leading to exercising an option by the Army to proceed directly to production.

These simulated grenades are the first intelligent and data-rich hand grenade training devices ever fielded for live Force-on-Force (FoF) training.  For hundreds of years, armed forces around the world have been forced to utilize inert and make-shift training devices such as tennis balls, pine cones, rocks, sacks of sand with chemical lights, or hard rubber replicas to roughly replicate grenades in live training.

The Serious Simulations simulated hand grenades and Claymore mines are high tech devices that determine their exact proximity to live soldiers and vehicles so as to assess a realistic and real time battle damage based on the simulated munitions’ data.  The devices also replicate realistic penetration of intervening materials, so that soldiers receive positive reinforcement for seeking proper protective cover.

The training devices use real soldier-to-munition interfaces with real parts.  Specifically, the grenade has a real spoon, pull ring, and safety clip, and is the correct size as real grenades.  The grenades also have an outer envelope of safety padding for safe throwing in live training.  In the same vein the Claymore mine kit contains a real firing device, real test device, real wire spool and bandoleer.  The mine head is simulated and houses the proximity and feedback electronics with correct form, fit, and function.

Michael Powell, product manager, STE Live Training Systems for the U.S. Army said, “We are thrilled to quickly field these innovative training systems under the Middle-Tier Acquisition Rapid Fielding initiative to fill a long-standing training gap that persisted in live force-on-force training for these close combat weapon systems.  The Serious Simulations team has been terrific to work with and is all set to deliver the cutting-edge products needed by our modern warfighters to train realistically.”

The fielded systems will produce vital training data and communicate to the training system architecture through the use of a Universal Receiver Unit (URU) attached to individuals and vehicles.  This small and unobtrusive device processes signal data and reports its “damage” results in real time to the Synthetic Training Environment, and it can also operate in legacy systems using MILES or ULEIS architectures.

Christopher Chambers, founder and CEO of Serious Simulations is excited about the production contract, saying “This contract represents the recognition of our company’s history of innovation and problem solving to develop high-tech solutions for historic training gaps.  It enables us to build our Veteran Owned Small Business’s capabilities and achieve higher volume production and fielding of hardware to the military.  We also expect to grow the reach of our Proximity technology to benefit other training devices such as sUAS’s, IED’s, anti-tank and anti-personnel mines.”

Initial production is intended for the Combat Training Centers at Fort Johnson, LA and Fort Irwin, CA.  Successful performance in these installations could lead to fielding in other CTCs and installations for home station training.

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For more information media should contact –

Christopher Chambers, Serious Simulations, 407-538-1927, cchambers@serioussimulations.com

About Serious Simulations:  Serious Simulations LLC, an Orlando based Veteran Owned simulation business, innovates and designs immersive training systems with custom made hardware and software components for specific skill training needs, often combined with motion or position tracking systems, wireless communications devices, wireless display technologies and commercial game engines. The company has unique and patented technologies to enable customers to integrate real devices and real weapons for simulation and live training.  Serious Simulations is a Prime Contractor for U.S. Army STE Live Training Systems (STE LTS) and has performed other subcontracts under STE LTS and STE Soldier Virtual Trainer (STE SVT).  For more information, visit our web site at www.serioussimulations.com .   Inquiries:  info@serioussimulations.com.      

Orlando, FL (March 7, 2025)

Serious Simulations, as an exclusive partner of Team Ravenswood, announces that they are participating as a key technology subcontractor for the BEST MAC Contract.

Ravenswood was Awarded a Prime Contractor role on the 10-Year “Bridge to Enduring Synthetic Training Environment (STE) Tactical Engagement Simulation Systems (TESS) Multiple-Award Contract (BEST MAC)”.  The BEST MAC Contract consists of two separate lots with a combined ceiling of $921,153,455. This Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) contract provides the US Army an avenue to compete various Delivery Orders among selected contract holders to meet three top priorities:

1. Refurbishment of old equipment to bridge the gap to the future.
2. Enhancement of legacy equipment to maximize interoperability.
3. Build new systems from design, to manufacturing, to implementations.

With comprehensive capabilities in engineering, design, development, manufacturing, networking, fielding, maintenance and training for TESS and STE platforms worldwide, Team Ravenswood and Serious Simulations are ready to leverage individual and combined strengths to help the U.S. Army address these priorities with focus on creating interoperability and commonality with current systems and the platforms they support throughout the acquisition cycle. In addition, Serious Simulations brings unique and recognized innovations and intellectual property to the Ravenswood team that support the future development needed by the Army.