Iraq-bound soldiers train in simulated urban fighting
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The Army is training units in Kuwait in a 40-foot-long, mobile facility that replicates what a soldier might encounter during urban street fighting in Iraq. <br>
The Army is training units in Kuwait in a 40-foot-long, mobile facility that replicates what a soldier might encounter during urban street fighting in Iraq.
As soldiers battle real-life scenarios'from shooting at enemy targets to rescuing civilians'three operators situated half a mile away in a command and control center monitor the training via a fiber-optic network, with microphones and digital cameras recording every action.
The Military Operations on Urban Terrain facility consists of shipping containers with cut-out doors and windows set side by side and stacked to resemble an urban village dwelling with schools, businesses, hospitals and residences.
Anteon Corp. of Fairfax, Va., developed the $2 million MOUT. Army leaders set the training scenarios and operators from Anteon record everything, said Dick Coltman, senior vice president of training systems for the company's integrated instrumentation division in Waynesville, N.C.
The company's team receives video feeds from cameras and microphones 'scattered around the village, and they are digitally recording all of this information'64 feeds of video that are being recorded for a 12- to 18-hour period, which requires a huge amount of capability and a lot of terabytes,' Coltman said.
Soldiers use the facility before they are sent to Iraq, which is about 20 miles from the training base, said Col. Rob Reyenga, project manager for live training devices. The feeds let commanders in a classroom explain what the soldiers did right and wrong, said Reyenga, who just returned from installing the unit in Kuwait to his post at an Army training and simulation facility in Orlando, Fla.
Anteon shipped the deployable MOUT to Kuwait on March 7, and the Army began using it March 25, Reyenga said. The service has used it to train Special Operations forces and soldiers with the 101st Infantry. Troops in the 4th Infantry are using it now, he added.
Next month, Anteon plans to ship a MOUT to Afghanistan.
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