Cole Engineering Services, Inc.

Cole Engineering Services, Inc. (doing business as CESI), a subsidiary of By Light Professional IT Services LLC headquartered in Orlando, Florida, delivers modeling, simulation, training, and infrastructure systems to the Department of Defense as a prime contractor (86% of recent awards) competing full and open with no small-business set-asides. The company provides live, virtual, and constructive training environments; software development and systems integration; enterprise compute and storage platform build-out; and operations and maintenance support for Army cyber training, collective training, and multi-domain defense capabilities.

CESI's customer concentration is extreme and tightly focused on Army training and simulation. The top five funding agencies account for 84% of recent awards by count and 99% by potential value. The Army's Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation dominates the portfolio: 70 awards totaling $22.11 billion in combined potential value. This single customer accounts for roughly 80% of CESI's dollar exposure, anchored by a single-award $957.7 million Indefinite Delivery contract for the Persistent Cyber Training Environment (PCTE) platform awarded in December 2021 and running through November 2029. Below PEO STRI, the Navy's Naval Sea Systems Command holds $3.96 billion across six awards, the Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Center holds $900 million on one multiple-award IDIQ, and Army's Research Development and Engineering Command holds $461.8 million across sixteen awards. CESI also maintains active work with the Marine Corps, Naval Air Systems Command, and the Missile Defense Agency.

CESI's vehicle position is concentrated within PEO STRI vehicles. The company holds a seat on five major IDVs and Other Transaction IDVs. The primary vehicle is the single-award $957.7 million PCTE Indefinite Delivery contract (21 task orders, $20.8 million combined potential value documented under its contract number M6785416D7804), which consolidates integration, development, maintenance, and technology insertion for the Army's cyber training platform with place of performance in Orlando and subordinate operations at seven geographically dispersed domestic sites. Under PCTE, CESI has executed orders including a $127.1 million content development and technical operations order (April 2022, cost-plus-fixed-fee, through November 2027); a $63.8 million operations and maintenance order (March 2026, cost-plus-fixed-fee, through November 2030); an $88.6 million enterprise compute and storage systems modernization order (July 2024, firm fixed-price, through July 2026); and a $49.9 million Defense Cyberforce Operations Training order (June 2026, cost-plus-fixed-fee, through June 2031). Beyond PCTE, CESI holds a $500 million Other Transaction IDV for Reconfigurable Virtual Collective Trainer (RVCT) production, under which two major orders have issued: a $358.95 million production and delivery order (April 2023, through September 2027) and a $5.43 million prototype variant order (September 2025, through September 2027). CESI also won a $921.2 million multiple-award IDIQ for the Bridge to Enduring Synthetic Training Environment (BEST) program (March 2025, through March 2030), a $212.9 million multiple-award Other Transaction IDV for Army training and simulation production (September 2023), and a $64.7 million multiple-award Other Transaction IDV for Stinger Training Device production (June 2025). On the Air Force side, CESI holds a $900 million multiple-award IDIQ with the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center for multi-domain systems development (December 2022, through November 2027). Most recently, CESI was awarded a seat on the Missile Defense Agency's $151 billion multiple-award SHIELD program IDIQ (December 2025, through December 2035), though initial task-order activity is minimal ($500 initial order).

SCI-reported invoiced revenue shows strong upward trajectory. CESI invoiced $3.8 million in FY2022 across 11.0 FTEs, $12 million in FY2023 across 25.3 FTEs, $21.2 million in FY2024 across 62.6 FTEs, and $48.3 million in FY2025 across 132 FTEs. On federal services contracts captured in SCI, government-paid rates ran a median of approximately $181.42 per hour, with junior labor pricing around $126 per hour and senior labor reaching $284 per hour. Across CESI's SCI-reportable prime contracts, subcontractors performed 42 percent of contractor hours across a named roster of 43 subcontractors, indicating a mixed-delivery model tilted toward CESI's own labor. Major subcontractors include Scientific Research Corporation (National Cyber Range Complex facility operations and architecture design), Riptide Software Inc. (software engineering on the One Semi-Automated Forces program), Mantech Mgs, Inc. (Joint Land Component Constructive Training Capability development), and Lockheed Martin Corporation (Army Training Aids, Devices, Simulators, and Simulations maintenance program). Activity has grown substantially: six awards in 2022 to sixteen in 2025. Within the next twenty-four months, eleven awards with combined potential value of $713.2 million reach ultimate completion and face recompete.

CESI's capability portfolio is anchored in cyber training platform modernization, live and virtual collective training systems, enterprise infrastructure modernization, and software development factory services. Representative work includes building enterprise compute and storage systems for PCTE, conducting software development factory services ($46.3 million, September 2023, through November 2027), providing courseware development and instructor services for Defense Cyberforce Operations Training, manufacturing and delivering Reconfigurable Virtual Collective Trainer units, and executing systems integration for the Australian Defence Force (regional compute and storage system build, $11 million, March 2026). The company's top NAICS categories are Computer Systems Design Services (41 awards), Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (36 awards), and Other Computer Related Services (29 awards). Top PSC codes are Training Aids (24 awards), R&D-Defense Other Services (21 awards), and R&D-General Science/Technology Engineering (16 awards), reflecting the core simulation-training and advanced-development posture. Combined potential value across the award portfolio sits at $27.76 billion, with $978.2 million obligated to date (4 percent of the potential ceiling), indicating early-stage execution across a large and growing multi-year vehicle portfolio anchored by PEO STRI.