i3 is Winner of Best Places to Work 2011 Award

Integration Innovation, Inc. (i3) is proud to announce the selection of our company as one of the five winners of the Best Places to Work 2011 in the small business category.

Best Places to Work is an annual award given to small, medium and large businesses within the greater Huntsville and Madison Country business community, hosted by the Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville/Madison County and the North Alabama Society for Human Resource Management (NASHRM) and presented this year by System, Studies and Simulation, Inc (S³).

Mike Wicks, i3 CEO, said, “I am so proud of the outstanding work that every i3 employee does on a daily basis to support our government, commercial and international customers. We work very hard to provide the best professional environment and seek to foster a corporate culture where our employees will be completely fulfilled, rewarded and allowed to flourish. This award is very gratifying and is an excellent indicator that our employees are excited about their work and their active involvement in an aggressive and growing small business. This is a tremendous recognition for Team i3.”

Ken Shannon, i3 COO, said, “During my military and industry careers, I have never had an experience working with any company with more professionalism, character and integrity as my colleagues here at i3. I love coming to work and thoroughly enjoy being part of such a dynamic small business with such wonderful employees.”

About i3:

Headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama, Integration Innovation, Inc. is a private, small business provider of technical and business support services to a variety of government and commercial customers. i3’s expertise includes systems and software engineering, modeling and simulation, training, environmental, information technology, C4ISR, logistics and international security services. i3 has offices in San Antonio, TX; Panama City, FL; Mobile, AL; Lawton, OK; and operations in Iraq. Additional information about i3 can be found at www.i3-corps.com.

Integration Innovation, Inc. (i3)

Joseph Summers

EVP, Corporate Development

256-783-7625

joseph.summers@i3-corps.com

TIKRIT, Iraq, April 1 (UPI) — Iraq’s fledgling postwar air force made a leap toward taking to the skies a few days ago when the first Iraqi instructor to graduate from a U.S. training program went aloft with his first student pilot in a Beechcraft T-6A Texan trainer.

The immediate aim of Lt. Col. Hussein Hamid, commander of 203 Squadron of the Iraqi air force, is to train 30 T-6 instructor pilots, who will take over the training program from U.S. Air Force personnel.

Hamid, who graduated as a pilot in Saddam Hussein’s air force in 1986, was retrained as an instructor by the U.S. Air Force’s 52nd Expeditionary Flying Training Squadron at the Iraqi Air Force Academy, Tikrit Air Base, north of Baghdad, which opened in March 2010.

“The Iraqi air force and the T-6A program are well on their way to leading the country in the fulfilling role of developing Iraqi pilots and maintenance technicians,” said U.S. Air Force Maj. John Creighton, deputy director of the U.S. Iraq Training and Advisory mission after a review of the Texan program by U.S. and Iraqi officers.

Hamid’s train-the-trainer program will come into its own when U.S. forces complete a withdrawal scheduled to end in December.

There are currently 18 Iraqi student pilots enrolled for flight training at Tikrit. They fly 15 single-engine turboprop T-6A basic trainers delivered by Hawker Beechcraft of Wichita, Kan., in 2010 under contracts with a combined value of $210 million for aircraft, ground-based training systems, spare parts and two years of contractor logistics support.

Eventually the Iraqi Air Force Academy will accommodate 1,500 students.

The Iraqi air force hasn’t received fixed-wing combat aircraft, although it had sought an initial order for 18 Lockheed Martin F-16s. The pilots for those will require advance training on supersonic jets, so acquiring an operational combat capability is likely several years away.

In the meantime, the Iraqi air force would like to buy 36 AT-6B light attack aircraft and would become the first customer for this aircraft if a contract is concluded.

These could be used for counterinsurgency operations that heavier and faster jets aren’t suited for.

In the context of Iraq’s ongoing security problems with al-Qaida and other insurgent/terrorist groups, the light attack aircraft would probably be more effective.

Rebuilding Iraq’s air force, which under the late Saddam Hussein was the sixth largest in the world with Soviet and French aircraft, will take many years. It was decimated in the 1990-91Gulf War and what units that survived were destroyed in the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.

The Americans decided in 2004 to rebuild Iraq’s armed forces and in September 2006, operational control of the nascent air force was handed over to the Iraqis.

Since then it has grown from no aircraft to having the T-6A Texans, five Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules transports and a number of surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft and helicopters.

But it lacks firepower it needs to defend the country without U.S. help — and that may be the case for some time to come.

Iraq’s neighbors, particularly Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran, are in no hurry to see its Saddam-era military might restored.

Saddam invaded Iran in September 1980, triggered a ruinous eight-year war, then conquered Kuwait in August 1990, touching off a war with a U.S.-led coalition that restored Kuwait’s sovereignty in February 1991.

Iraq was reported to have been lining up a $13 billion deal with the Pentagon for the 18 F-16s in January. But in February, Baghdad delayed the acquisition, saying it was diverting the planned $900 million initial payment to Lockheed Martin to provide food for the nation’s poor.

That move came amid a surge of political upheaval across the Arab world over food and electricity shortages and other economic hardships, coupled with demands for greater political freedom by the authoritarian regimes in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and elsewhere.

Baghdad’s apparent effort to head off political unrest on its own doorstep seemed plausible enough.

But the F-16 postponement also followed a reported offer by France to sell Iraq 18 upgraded Dassault Aviation Mirage F-1 fighters for a bargain-basement $1 billion.

It may be some time before Hamid’s students see the inside of a supersonic fighter’s cockpit.

© 2011 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2011/04/01/Iraqs-new-air-force-reaches-for-the-sky/UPI-58101301673296/print/#ixzz1IZuET3ki

by Senior Master Sgt. Larry Schneck

United States Forces-Iraq, Air Component Coordination Element-Iraq Public Affairs

1/10/2011 - BAGHDAD (AFNS) – Iraqi air force pilots flew a record number of aircraft during the annual Iraqi Army Day Parade Jan. 6 at the International Zone here.

Iraqi crews piloted 20 aircraft in 12 fly-overs and aerial demonstrations over a parade field filled with government officials from allied nations and Iraqi government leaders, including Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki and Lt. Gen. Ahmed Anwar, the Iraqi air force commander.

“This is definitely a significant milestone in the development of the Iraqi air force,” said Capt. Martin Lopez, a T-6A Texan II instructor pilot assigned to the 52nd Expeditionary Flying Training Squadron at Coalition Operating Base Speicher in Tikrit, Iraq. “It demonstrates their increasing capabilities and movement toward complete air sovereignty.”

The T-6, a single-engine turboprop aircraft, is used by the U.S. Air Force and Iraqi air Force primarily for pilot training, officials said. It’s now playing a significant role in helping re-establish Iraq’s air fleet.

“The quality of skill and discipline of the Iraqis has greatly improved,” Captain Lopez said. “They’re taking the training seriously. I’ve seen improvement since I arrived in October.”

American and Iraqi pilots fly together in training aircraft like the T-6A, featured in the aerial demonstration during the Iraqi Army Day celebration, he said.

Pilots from Tikrit began the qualification phase of the nearly year-long training, officials said. The school expects to graduate 16 qualified Iraqi T-6 instructor pilots by the end of the year.

“The objective of our training is to provide a corps of pilots for a stable, self-sufficient nation,” Captain Lopez said. “This record participation of Iraqi air force aircraft in the Army Day parade shows we’re on track.”

The Inside AF.mil article can be viewed at http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123237574

For more information on i3 Global Flight Training and Logistics (GFTL) programs, please call Mr. Rick McCool at 1-918-991-9894 or Mr. Keith Shivers at 1-256-513-5179 x1003.

by Noel Getlin
Air Force Agency for Modeling and Simulation

10/29/2010 - JOINT READINESS TRAINING CENTER FORT POLK, La. (AFNS) – A new capability to broadcast a combined live, virtual and constructive, or LVC, picture using distributed models and simulations brings live training for joint terminal attack controllers closer to training like they fight.

The new capability was developed by members of the Air Force Agency for Modeling and Simulation in Orlando, Fla. The distributed radio frequency broadcast mode technical support was provided by engineers from the Joint Technology Center-Systems Integration Laboratory at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., and the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk.  Exercise Green Flag East 11-1 was used as a test bed.

This development is significant for several reasons, officials said.

First, it allows JTACs to receive an encrypted LVC video broadcast to untethered Remotely Operated Video Enhanced Receivers, known as ROVERs, in the field during training exercises. Until now, JTACs’ ROVERs had to be plugged in at an Army Tactical Operations Center at a forward operating base during training to receive live or virtual intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance footage from MQA-1 Predators, MQ-9 Reapers and other ISR platforms.

Another major achievement is the ability to integrate live components in an LVC environment.

“We developed this capability to provide an LVC broadcast to JTACs because they weren’t getting their Tactics, Techniques and Procedures training prior to deployment,” said Ron McDaniel, the AFAMS project lead. “Our connection to the JTAC is the first to provide full battlefield situational awareness. And we got an LVC picture to a live asset, the JTAC in the field.”

The LVC feed is a synthetic virtual database construct of terrain at the Fort Polk range populated with a view of the synthetic battlespace. It also includes the Close Air Support town, which was built on the range to resemble an Iraqi or Afghan town, in the database.

Meanwhile, simulation operators at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., flew remotely piloted vehicles, such as Predators and Reapers, in the Air Force Synthetic Environment for Reconnaissance and Surveillance virtual simulation using a constructive environment built in Air, Space and Cyber Constructive Environment-Information Operations Suite. JTACs will be able to communicate with the virtual unmanned aircraft operators to coordinate their flights in order to get the images needed.

On the range, role players populate the CAS town representing townspeople, leaders and opposing forces. They, along with U.S. troops and insurgents on the range, wear instrumented vests that allow their positions to be tracked via GPS coordinates. These live movements are integrated into the virtual and constructive environment allowing the pilots and the JTACs to see the people’s movements on the video feeds in near real time.

“It brings a level of realism to the training and specifically to CAS town,” said Lt. Col. Paul Kirmis, commander of the 548th Combat Training Squadron at Fort Polk. “Whether it’s an Army ground commander sitting in his Humvee with a (One System Remote Video Terminal) or it’s a JTAC on an outpost looking at a ROVER … he is able to pull up a picture that matches the Predator.”

The implications down the road for the new capability are endless, especially with the radio frequency feeds. Officials with the 548th CTS hope to get the capability permanently in place by summer 2011.

“Once this is online and we have enough towers outfitted to broadcast this signal, we can start putting in more aircraft,” said Colonel Kirmis. “While we don’t always have a real or surrogate Predator for an exercise, with this capability we can have a (virtual) Predator any time we want one.”

The role of AFAMS specialists in the project includes oversight and planning, logistics support, acquiring funding and program management. They also brought in the new, smaller ROVER5 into the exercise, something most JTACs haven’t seen or used yet. They also are working to ensure Air Force models and simulations can be integrated and are interoperable so that other Air Force simulators can plug into existing simulators.

“That’s where you can go next generation with this,” Colonel Kirmis said, “…through tying in platforms so that a B-52 (Stratofortress) crew at Barksdale (AFB, La.) or an F-16 (Fighting Falcon pilot) at Shaw (AFB, S.C.) gets training in this exercise without having to spend the money to travel here.”

The colonel summed up the need to continue to develop LVC environments at a time when Air Force officials have made deep budget cuts.

“(Due to budget cuts) we can’t afford all the things that we used to have to train,” he said. “So we’re going to have to learn to do it more smartly without losing that training that we need.”

i3 SMES Dr. Ken Knox and Ken Lien conducted a Training Workshop this past July for a new security software called, ForcePRO. i3 has been maintaining and developing this software and is now beginning to train military personnel on how to use it to create integrated defense plans. The software will allow Air Force Bases to heighten and reinforce their security levels. i3 plans to continue the security software training at military bases around the globe.

“Starting a new company is never easy, but all the outstanding work that everyone who works for i3 has been doing over the last two years has brought us to this milestone. It is certainly very exciting and humbling to get to work with such an amazing group of people. We have been very blessed over the last two years, and we look forward to achieving our next major growth milestones. Because of our great people, I have no doubt that we’ll achieve them all,” said Mike Wicks, i3 President and CEO.

“It is an absolute joy to come to work every day. I am very proud of all our employees and the way they work so hard to support our customers. Supporting our men and women in uniform is an awesome privilege. It is very gratifying to get to do it everyday with such a wonderful group of people and in such a dynamic and exciting company,” said Ken Shannon, i3 Chief Operating Officer.

“The Navy is becoming a larger customer of the Security and Environmental Solutions business unit. I’m very proud of the work our employees are doing to support NAVAIR, and we are aggressively pursuing several new business opportunities within the Navy. As we endeavor to support Navy and Marine Corps customers with software, training and environmental solutions, this prime contract will help us meet our goals,” said Mark Thomas, Senior Vice President, Security and Environmental Solutions.

To learn more about the SeaPort-e contract, the official Government site can be viewed here.

i3′s own CJ Jacobs was recently featured in a local magazine training soldiers on how to use software developed as part of a partnership with JSIL that includes three local companies.

Click here to read article

Integration Innovation, Inc. (i3) announced that it was awarded a prime contract to provide training and support services to the United States Army Fires Center of Excellence (USAFCOEFS) at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. The USAFCOEFS has the mission to provide the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) with long-range training concepts and strategies, doctrine, training development and support products.
The i3 team includes AMTEC Corporation, Computer Sciences Corporation, Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, Qinetiq North America, System Studies and Simulation, Inc., Strategic Knowledge Solutions, and Trideum Corporation.
“This is a great win for Team i3. We are very proud of the legacy of outstanding training support this team has provided across all the military Services, and especially to the Army and the USAFCOEFS. We are committed to continuing to provide superior training solutions and to support the growth of Ft. Sill and the Lawton community over the coming years.” said Mike Wicks, i3 CEO.
About i3:

Headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama, Integration Innovation, Inc. is a private, small business provider of services and solutions to defense, intelligence and other U.S. federal government customers. i3’s expertise includes systems and software engineering, modeling and simulation, training services and systems development, information technology, C4ISR, logistics and international security services. i3 has offices in San Antonio, TX; Panama City, FL; Mobile, AL; Fargo, ND and Lawton, OK; and operations in Iraq.

Integration Innovation, Inc. (i3)
Joseph Summers
EVP, Corporate Development
256-783-7625
joseph.summers@i3-corps.com

TIME:                 4:00 – 8:00 p.m.

WHERE:             Spring Hill Suites, 3 Southeast Interstate Drive, Lawton, OK 73501

Please join us for the evening!! Learn more about the i3 Team and our contract to support the FIRES Center of Excellence at Fort Sill.

Come meet our corporate leaders, explore employment opportunities and learn much more about i3 and the outstanding companies that make up our Team; including AMTEC Corporation, Computer Sciences Corporation, Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, Qinetiq North America, System Studies and Simulation, Inc., Strategic Knowledge Solutions, and Trideum Corporation.

The i3 Team was awarded a prime contract to provide training and support services to the United States Army Fires Center of Excellence (USAFCOEFS) at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. The USAFCOEFS has the mission to provide the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) with long-range training concepts and strategies, doctrine, training development and support products.

The i3 Team is seeking:

FCOE Training SMEs, Training Analysts and Developers, Military Analysts, Simulation Experts, IT/KM Experts, Doctrine Writers, Technical Writers/Editors, Instructors: FA, ADA, EW, JFOC, Courseware Developers, Operations Specialists, Logistics Specialists

Come join the i3 Team and enjoy John & Cook’s on April 8.

We look forward to meeting you!

About i3:

Headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama, Integration Innovation, Inc. is a private, small business provider of services and solutions to defense, intelligence and other U.S. federal government customers. i3’s expertise includes systems and software engineering, modeling and simulation, training services and systems development, information technology, C4ISR, logistics and international security services. i3 has offices in San Antonio, TX; Panama City, FL; Mobile, AL; Fargo, ND and Lawton, OK; and operations in Iraq. Additional information about i3 can be found at www.i3-corps.com.

Integration Innovation, Inc. (i3)

Joseph Summers

EVP, Corporate Development

256-783-7625

joseph.summers@i3-corps.com