Cubic’s
Distance Learning Business Shows Steady Growth
SAN DIEGO, Calif. – February 22, 2006 -- Cubic Corporation
(AMEX: CUB) reported that its defense segment is seeing an
increase in U.S. Army distance learning business. Over the
past three years, the company has received approximately
$7 million in Army contracts for distance learning courseware,
and is positioned to gain more of this business following
its successful teaming with UNITECH to win an Indefinite
Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) contract with a five-year
potential value of $320 million for the Army’s Distance
Learning Education and Training Products (DLETP) program.
A UNITECH team including Cubic is one of six teams selected
by the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) to
win the opportunity to bid for a wide range of interactive
and multimedia training and simulation content and courseware
under the DLETP program. The TRADOC contract is for one base
year with four option years.
Web-based or distance learning courseware is of growing
interest to military educators because it enables rapid update
of content, and standardizes the material presented for both
active and reserve components.
“Distance learning is a methodology that can be used
when it’s not possible to get everyone in one central
location to train,” said Pat Lamar, Cubic program manager
for the Non Resident School located at the U.S. Army Command
and General Staff College (CGSC) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. “The
tools that Cubic is developing for the U.S. Army will allow
thousands of people who could otherwise not continue their
professional military education – including active-duty,
Reserve and National Guard officers – to continue learning
wherever they go. And the tools that Cubic is providing can
be expanded upon later if the Army so chooses, to make the
content even more valuable and current for each unit.”
Cubic received its first contract to provide
distance learning coursework in 2002, when the CGSC asked
Cubic to convert
the Army’s Intermediate Level Education (ILE) common
core component to a Web-based curriculum that mid-grade Reserve
and National Guard officers could take at any location with
Internet access. The ILE contract, which generated about
$3.5 million for Cubic over its three-year term, was successfully
completed in September 2005. Since October 2005, the Army’s
Non-Resident School has enrolled students worldwide to learn
warfighting ethos and leadership skills.
Cubic received a second, $1.1 million contract
in 2004 from the Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth
to convert
a portion of the Army’s traditional Advanced Operations & Warfighting
Course (AOWC) for distance learning. This effort involved
the conversion of approximately 72 hours of leadership and
history courses to a distance learning format suitable for
Reserve and National Guard officers. Cubic completed this
second contract in August 2005.
In September 2005, Cubic received a new $2.6 million award
to convert AOWC Block I (Joint Operations) and Block II (Division
Operations) to a distance learning format. Cubic began work
on the new contract in October. Completion is scheduled for
August 2006, with the possibility of follow-on maintenance
and sustainment work.
And now the new DLETP contract offers the promise of more
distance learning opportunities. Cubic specifically will
focus on developing the capability to conduct training collaboratively
enabling students to not only interact with the media, but
also with the instructor.
Cubic’s Training and Education Division is part of
the Mission Support Business Unit of Cubic Defense Applications
(CDA), one of Cubic Corporation’s two major segments.
CDA is a world leader in realistic combat training systems,
mission support services and defense electronics. The corporation's
other major segment, Cubic Transportation Systems, designs
and manufactures automatic fare collection systems for public
mass transit authorities. For more information about Cubic,
see the company's website at www.cubic.com.