The U.S. Army has again turned to Maxar Intelligence to build out immersive training and simulation software.
The geospatial intelligence company on March 12 said it won the latest phase of prototype work on the service’s One World Terrain, which compiles realistic and, in some cases, extremely accurate digital maps of territory across the globe for military purposes.
A Maxar spokesperson said the company was “not disclosing any financial details” of the deal. The announcement did not say how long the effort was expected to take. Three phases of the OWT prototype project were previously said to be worth nearly $95 million.
OWT is considered a critical component of the Army’s Synthetic Training Environment. The STE is meant to provide soldiers convincing, common and automatically generated environments in which they can study tactics and rehearse missions. Virtual worlds afford troops additional means of training while also saving real-world ammunition, fuel and wear and tear.
Maxar’s fourth phase of work will focus on delivering enhanced, believable terrain. The company has been involved with OWT since 2019.
“This latest award reflects the unique value of our 3D geospatial data for military simulation use cases,” Susanne Hake, Maxar’s general manager for U.S. government, said in a statement. “Our data, derived from our Precision3D product, offers an extremely accurate 3D representation of Earth, including real textures and superior accuracy of 3 [meters] in all dimensions.”
Maxar was acquired by private equity firm Advent International in 2022 in an arrangement worth $6.4 billion. Following the buy, the company reorganized into two businesses: Maxar Intelligence and Maxar Space Infrastructure.
Colin Demarest was a reporter at C4ISRNET, where he covered military networks, cyber and IT. Colin had previously covered the Department of Energy and its National Nuclear Security Administration — namely Cold War cleanup and nuclear weapons development — for a daily newspaper in South Carolina. Colin is also an award-winning photographer.
