ORLANDO, Fla. — As many as 1,000 jobs at the United States Army’s Simulation, Training and Instrumentation, or STRI, headquarters in Orlando could be on the chopping block as the Department of Defense eyes large-scale reductions and streamlining of the branch.
According to a memo obtained by Breaking Defense, a military-focused outlet, the Army, in partnership with the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has listed STRI as a possibility for elimination, as the branch seeks to reduce the number of generals in its ranks.
STRI is one of the Army’s 13 Program Executive Offices scattered across the country. The memo stated the goal of cutting that number down to nine through both reductions and consolidations.
The memo’s leak came after United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth gave remarks to cadets at the Army War College, where he previewed his efforts to focus on warfighting.
He said DOGE has identified $5.1 billion in cost-saving measures that they’re just beginning to enact.
“This is how you plan and prioritize as you look where you can do more with less,” he said.
STRI’s job is to contract out simulation and training programs for soldiers around the world. It’s responsible for $3 billion of the Orlando area’s $7 billion in simulation and technology-related spending.
The 1,000 employees are mostly civilian positions and do not include the hundreds of contractors at companies like Lockheed Martin that compete for contracts doled out by the division.
Most of the jobs within STRI pay north of $100,000 per year, the National Center for Simulation’s George Cheros said. He added that most of the contractors that work in Orlando’s simulation industry are small businesses.
“Closure is the absolute worst case,” Cheros said. “I don’t think that’s what it’s going to be.”
Cheros said the simulation largely consolidated around Orlando and now encompasses four branches of the military and close to 30,000 workers. Space Force’s recent shift toward Patrick Space Force Base was largely driven because that branch wanted to be close to the industry as well, he explained.
“There’s the benefit of collaboration,” he said.
When reached for comment, a spokesperson for the Army said nothing had been finalized.
“The decision-making process is ongoing, and details of any realignment at this stage are pre-decisional,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.
Breaking Defense reporter Ashley Roque, who obtained the internal memo and who has reported on the military for more than 20 years, said “pre-decisional” could mean anything from the lack of a formal signature to an entire overhaul of the plan.
“I’ve heard from people from Orlando. I’ve heard from people out in Austin, Texas, where Army Futures Command is, or Huntsville, Alabama,” she said. “There’s a larger shake up everywhere, and everyone seems very uncertain right now about what their job security is.”
Roque said STRI could be in the crosshairs because the Army believes that much of its functions can be transferred to other offices that deal with different parts of training programs, like hardware.
STRI has also been mired in controversy in the past, with some programs bogged down in glitches for years. Last June, the office was connected to a raid by Army investigators. Details about the investigation behind the raid have been closely guarded and never confirmed.
Roque summed up the looming cuts as “growing pains.”
“Everything from multibillion dollar weapon systems to the structure of the Army to potentially eliminating general officer positions, sort of all seems in flux,” she said.
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