thedrifter
01-23-07, 04:22 PM
Lejeune to open expanded urban training facility
By Trista Talton - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jan 23, 2007 16:46:32 EST
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — More buildings, more realism, and more relevance — Camp Lejeune’s expanding Mobile Military Operations on Urban Terrain facility promises to offer much more when it’s opened for training in April.
“What we’re trying to do is to expand, enhance existing MOUT facilities,” said James Schleining, range development director at Camp Lejeune.
When finished, the facility will span 40 to 50 acres and have 72 more buildings that will look like an Afghan or Iraqi village. The changes are a far cry from the existing facility of European design — 32 buildings that include a church, schools, gas stations, hotels and homes.
The new part of the facility uses 8-by-8-by-40-foot ship cargo containers. Designers have added plywood walls inside each container, and also added windows. Some containers are stacked to create taller buildings, densely packed together with courtyard walls and open areas peppered with palm trees to give it that village feel.
Video cameras are placed throughout the facility to capture training. Units can use the footage to review individual Marines’ strengths and weaknesses.
Automated targets will be placed inside and outside of buildings throughout the facility. Role players will be added to the training. Sound effects such as call to prayer and dogs barking will be broadcast as Marines train. Even rocket-propelled grenades will be fired.
Some of the buildings have balconies, which good hiding places for the enemy. And some roads and allies dead end, creating an easy trap for convoys.
Such ideas came from Marines’ experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, Schleining said.
“We’re doing things that they’re bringing back from lessons learned,” he said.
Camp Lejeune-based Marines will continue to train at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, Calif., once Lejeune’s Mobile MOUT facility is finished, Schleining said. But training in California will become more of a graduation exercise for Lejeune-based Marines, he said. And Marines can come back to Lejeune’s facility for remedial training
Ellie
By Trista Talton - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jan 23, 2007 16:46:32 EST
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — More buildings, more realism, and more relevance — Camp Lejeune’s expanding Mobile Military Operations on Urban Terrain facility promises to offer much more when it’s opened for training in April.
“What we’re trying to do is to expand, enhance existing MOUT facilities,” said James Schleining, range development director at Camp Lejeune.
When finished, the facility will span 40 to 50 acres and have 72 more buildings that will look like an Afghan or Iraqi village. The changes are a far cry from the existing facility of European design — 32 buildings that include a church, schools, gas stations, hotels and homes.
The new part of the facility uses 8-by-8-by-40-foot ship cargo containers. Designers have added plywood walls inside each container, and also added windows. Some containers are stacked to create taller buildings, densely packed together with courtyard walls and open areas peppered with palm trees to give it that village feel.
Video cameras are placed throughout the facility to capture training. Units can use the footage to review individual Marines’ strengths and weaknesses.
Automated targets will be placed inside and outside of buildings throughout the facility. Role players will be added to the training. Sound effects such as call to prayer and dogs barking will be broadcast as Marines train. Even rocket-propelled grenades will be fired.
Some of the buildings have balconies, which good hiding places for the enemy. And some roads and allies dead end, creating an easy trap for convoys.
Such ideas came from Marines’ experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, Schleining said.
“We’re doing things that they’re bringing back from lessons learned,” he said.
Camp Lejeune-based Marines will continue to train at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, Calif., once Lejeune’s Mobile MOUT facility is finished, Schleining said. But training in California will become more of a graduation exercise for Lejeune-based Marines, he said. And Marines can come back to Lejeune’s facility for remedial training
Ellie