NEW ORLEANS — The future of virtual weapons training is being developed in a small suite of offices in downtown New Orleans.
“I have a degree in physics, and I wanted to do something that could be grown here, that was organic,” said Haptech Founder and CEO Kyle Monti.
Monti is a Luling native and a University of New Orleans graduate.
He said that not only is his company making training safer for the military, but it’s also creating jobs, boosting the economy, and allowing him to chase his dream at home.
“Why not New Orleans. Why not here. There’s lots of talented people that are just in the city and state.”
Innovators at Haptech spent the past ten years developing an electromagnetic recoil system that can be dropped into most military weapons, from handguns to machine guns.
It uses the same basic technology that makes your cellphone vibrate when someone is calling or texting you.
It gives soldiers the feel of real live fire without the bullets.
“In addition to the feeling of the recoil, there’s a suite of sensors so they can sense the users touch different control points on the weapons themselves and you can gather that data and see how they’re training over time,” Monti said.
So far, Haptech has secured about $11.5 million in military contracts with the Army and Marine Corps.
The company now employs about 20 Louisiana natives with plans to hire 10 more by the end of the year.
That’s exciting for people like summer intern Ian Fischer, who, like fellow Hahnville High graduate Kyle Monti, can now pursue his own high-tech dream on Silicon Bayou.
“New Orleans, Louisiana, is still a good place to be and to be in the technical industry, so it definitely changes things for me,” Fischer said. “It makes me want to stay here.”
“I wanted to stay,” Monti said. “I always had the idea of building a bridge and I was hoping this could be my bridge.”
Soldiers began testing the latest version of Haptech’s training weapons this month.
The company is hoping to develop similar weapons training technology for law enforcement.
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