DTB: Are training and simulation systems designed on a custom basis for each type of aircraft or weapon system, or are they adaptable?

Delisle: We have a common training simulation architecture, which is a composable framework or set of capabilities that can be re-used in different application spaces. A lot of the training delivery capabilities can be delivered to the same underlying technology. So if you're looking at a specific application — an F-16 versus an F/A-18 — the only differences between the two tend to be the specific performance characteristics of the vehicles themselves or the weapons they have. That information gets mapped into our simulation environment with each specific model. But the underlying networking and functions within that framework are common to both. That way you get a lot of re-use in delivering the product.

Delisle: We try to avoid proprietary software as a fundamental design that open architecture, so for the different components within the architecture, we like to, as much as possible, leverage commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies. We can plug them into the framework and leverage the commercial products in terms of price and economies of scale. We've developed this open architecture approach because if you look at the supply set we use, and depending upon customer requirements, we want to get the best of the best. We want to be able to go to a supplier or subcontractor that has special or unique capabilities in their particular area that better satisfy the solution and gives the best value to the customer.

When we work with the customer — and it's an often-used term — we try to use the "honest broker" approach. We want to work with them and determine the best total solution given all the potential suppliers — how they can better solve the problem rather than forcing them into a Link proprietary solution. If you're pushing your own agenda and your own products, in a lot of cases that may not be the right answer, and the customer knows that.

DTB: What are some of the major programs to which you've supplied training and simulation products and expertise?

Delisle: One of our top programs is the Army Aviation Combined Arms Tactical Trainer (AVCATT), which trains helicopter pilots for the Army. A companion to that is Flight School 21, a total turnkey schoolhouse operation where we run the program for the Army to train the helicopter pilots. On the Air Force side, we do the F-16 training program as one of our mainstays. There is a whole family of F-16 derivatives that we do for that program. One of the major programs with the Air Force now is the movement toward unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). We won a program with the Air Force to deliver the first training system for the Predator UAV, and we just delivered to the Air Force the Predator mission aircrew training system. That's very important because now you're going from man-in-the-loop air vehicles to unmanned. That had its own unique challenges from a training and simulation perspective.

On the Navy side, we provide the whole series of F-18 training systems. And above and beyond that, we do the B-2 and the F-117 training systems, and provide a whole family of service programs, including aircrew training systems for the E3 and E6.