CAE USA Inc.

CAE USA Inc. Link Training & Simulation Division, doing business as CAE USA Military Training Services, is a foreign-owned (Canadian parent CAE Inc.) large defense contractor that delivers advanced training systems, operational flight trainers, simulation engineering, and training sustainment services to the U.S. Department of Defense and allied military customers as a prime contractor across 94% of its recent awards. The company competes full-and-open without set-asides and operates from Arlington, Texas as the Link Training & Simulation Division of its parent organization.

CAE USA's customer footprint is heavily concentrated in Air Force and Navy training programs. The top five customer organizations by combined potential value account for 61% of the dollar volume: the Air Force Materiel Command's Aeronautical Systems Center dominates with 170 awards worth $58.42 billion in combined potential value, followed by the Naval Air Warfare Center (106 awards, $13.13 billion), Air Force Materiel Command's Lifecycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson (91 awards, $1.04 billion), Air Force Research Laboratory (83 awards, $937.7 million), and Naval Air Systems Command (277 awards, $552.8 million). The divergence between the two rankings signals that while NAVAIR issues many small task orders, the Aeronautical Systems Center anchors nearly half the dollar value in a smaller award count, primarily through the $900 million Simulator Common Architecture Requirements and Standards (SCARS) single-award IDIQ.

CAE USA holds position on major Air Force and DoD training vehicles. It is the sole awardee on the $900 million SCARS contract with the Aeronautical Systems Center (primary vehicle generating numerous task orders for F-16, F/A-18, and other platform training systems), holds seats on the $32.5 billion Training Systems Acquisition IV multiple-award contract with the Air Force, a $99 million Adaptive Technologies for Force Readiness contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory, the $46 billion Eglin Wide Agile Acquisition Contract (EWAAC), a $151 billion multiple-award Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) contract with the Missile Defense Agency awarded in December 2025, and multiple-award positions on GSA's ASTRO platform-related services vehicle under FEDSIM ($999.999 billion placeholder ceiling). Named parent vehicles show 191 task orders (ranging across Navy N-series and Air Force FA-series IDIQs) generating $126.4 million to $180.2 million in combined potential value per vehicle.

Representative prime work spans mission-critical training platforms. Recent delivery orders include a $9.8 million SCARS Task Order 61 for management services (January 2026), a $4.02 million Task Order 62 for F-16 Continental United States V-4 Maintenance Training Center sites (December 2025), a $2.03 million Task Order 63 for F-16 overseas Maintenance Training Center sites (December 2025), a $13.668 million Naval Air Warfare Center delivery order for F/A-18 USMC Tactical Operational Flight Trainer System Configuration Set 31C upgrade (September 2023, cost-plus-fixed-fee, ultimate completion November 2026), a $50.9 million definitive contract from Naval Air Warfare Center for CF-18 Tactical Operations Flight Trainer extended hardware upgrades (June 2022, ultimate completion April 2027), and a $38.7 million definitive contract for Royal Saudi Land Forces UH-60L Operational Flight Trainer instructor pilot and contractor logistics support services (October 2022, ultimate completion August 2026). In the Air Force Research Laboratory domain, CAE USA holds a $7.7 million delivery order for Training and Readiness Testbed Operations (May 2023, cost-plus-fixed-fee, completion December 2026) and a $3.996 million award for Multiscale Models for Cognitive Performance under the Adaptive Technologies for Force Readiness vehicle (October 2022, cost-plus-fixed-fee, completion January 2027).

Activity has grown unevenly over the past five years—38 awards in 2022, declining to 25 in 2024, then rebounding to 45 in 2025 and 4 awards year-to-date in 2026. Thirty-three awards with combined potential value of $695.9 million are reaching ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, representing significant recompete exposure and opportunity for competitors on SCARS and other major air training platforms.

CAE USA operates predominantly as a prime contractor (966 awards, 94%) with limited subcontractor exposure (59 sub awards, 6%). It frequently subcontracts to Boeing, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, and specialized defense technology vendors—including recent sub engagements with Boeing on Royal Australian Air Force H-18 Aircrew Aerospace Support, Lockheed Martin on Army Training Aids, Devices, Simulators and Simulations Maintenance Program contracts, and BAE Systems on BIG SAFARI Weapon System Trainer support. On its own prime contracts, CAE USA subcontracts an average of 18% of contractor hours across SCI-reportable service contracts. Named subcontractors on prime awards include Leidos (cybersecurity sustainment), Epoch Concepts LLC (Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business supplying VMware and cloud solutions), Trusted TECH Team LLC (Microsoft licensing), Govsmart Inc. (HUBZone small business, Red Hat and VMware licenses), Infinitetactics LLC (labor support), and multiple small businesses supplying hardware and software components.

SCI-reported invoiced revenue on federal service contracts above the $150,000 threshold totaled $173.1 million across three fiscal years (FY2022–FY2024): $47.8 million in FY2022, $49.1 million in FY2023, and $76.3 million in FY2024, showing year-over-year growth in FY2024. The SCI dataset captured 151 FTEs in FY2022, 137 in FY2023, and 170 in FY2024 across CAE USA's prime service contracts. Government-paid hourly rates on those contracts ranged from a 10th percentile of $73.88/hr to a median of $142.19/hr and 90th percentile of $332.95/hr, reflecting a mix of junior technical labor, engineering, and specialized training system support roles. SCI figures represent a small subset of CAE USA's total federal revenue and do not include goods, classified contracts, or non-federal work.

The company operates as a subsidiary of Canadian-headquartered CAE Inc., which is listed in the corporate structure as the parent vendor, and is itself named as a child entity (UEI HVQBAL5E7R23) of Ship Analytic USA, Inc. (a separate parent structure in the source data). Across its federal footprint, CAE USA positions itself as an established large defense contractor competing full-and-open against other major primes and specialized simulators vendors, with demonstrated expertise in operational flight trainer development, advanced synthetic environments, cybersecurity sustainment, geospatial database systems, and military training system modernization across multiple platforms and military domains. The company's scale and IDIQ portfolio position it as a critical supplier within the Air Force and Navy training acquisition ecosystem.