Training as a Service: The Future of U.S. Armed Forces Training, Made by Saab, Inc.
Saab’s Training as a Service (TaaS) is a new way of delivering effective, turnkey training to warfighters across the Department of Defense.
What is Training as a Service?
Saab’s Training as a Service (TaaS) is a new way of delivering effective, turnkey training to warfighters across the Department of Defense. Traditionally, live combat training required significant infrastructure and support and could only be offered at fixed sites. Saab’s TaaS reimagines this approach by delivering relevant, realistic and highly cost-effective training, nearly erasing the vast “tail” of support, maintenance and fixed infrastructure that the traditional method required.
Saab’s TaaS offering uses the world-leading GAMER platform (currently in use in over 30 nations), where each player is provided with the necessary equipment to track their location, weapon discharges and outcomes across a wide geographical area. This information is reported to a mobile Exercise Control and After-Action Review facility for near real-time analysis of combat effectiveness.
Saab’s highly skilled analysts set this offering apart by taking complete responsibility for all technical aspects of the training. It is this whole solution approach that removes the traditional overhead and, most importantly, gives time back to the trainees and training staff to focus on their core mission – developing enhanced combat skills that make them more lethal to our enemies, more capable for our allies and most importantly, more likely to prevail and survive the modern battlefield.
How was TaaS created?
In 2021, Saab employees recognized that a better, more cost-effective approach was needed to deliver essential training to the nation’s warfighters and security forces. Understanding the limitations and costs of the traditional approach, Saab decided to invest in the equipment, people and resources needed to deliver a turnkey training solution. By eliminating the traditional overheads and impediments to training – including logistics, maintenance, and technical expertise –TaaS allows warfighting institutions across the defense enterprise to focus on the heart of the training mission – skill and capability development. Less than a year after developing the concept, Saab delivered its first field training event and is now under contract to the United States Marine Corps to continue delivering this capability.
Where is TaaS located?
The short answer is (almost) anywhere! The training kits are portable and compatible with all existing military training ranges. The mobile command center – a 38-foot Command Post Vehicle with five analyst work centers and two large debriefing monitors – can be deployed anywhere it can travel.
The man-worn training kits are housed in Orlando, the home of Saab’s Training and Simulations team. The kits are maintained, cleaned, and repaired there and are available to ship or be transported throughout the United States by the field support team.
How does TaaS benefit customers?
- Users of the Saab TaaS solution can leverage decades of investment and capability development based on more than 30 nations’ use of the GAMER system.
- Saab’s GAMER system is robust, reliable and available 24/7 for complex operations.
- TaaS frees the warfighter from a dependency on local facilities or range constraints, allowing training wherever and whenever the mission requires.
- Saab’s TaaS model provides comprehensive training for less than the cost per day of player food, ammunition and transportation.
- At this time, Saab’s TaaS model supports Company plus operations and will grow to support Battalion operations over the next two years.
- Saab’s TaaS solution is available now. There are no procurement lead times, no production delays, no dependency on fragile supply chains and no dependency on scarce production funding. Utilizing Operation & Maintenance funding, the Saab Training Team can deploy TaaS to the warfighter’s preferred location and deliver effective, credible training within two weeks of a service contract.
Saab is proud that our next-generation TaaS platform is revolutionizing the way we prepare Americans for the modern battlefield.