Urban warriors at work
Volume 11, No. 55, November 02, 2006
By Cpl Mike McSweeney

Urban assault: Pte Paul Blake, Training Support Pl, RMC, leaps through the window of a building at Majura Range in Canberra during an urban warfare demonstration. The mock urban warfare setting (part of which can be seen in the photo at left) is a smaller version of one that will be built at Shoalwater Bay. Photo by Cpl Michael Davis.

A PROTOTYPE for the future of urban terrain training was on display at Canberra recently as part of an Australian-US interoperability initiative.

Consisting of 14 specially-made shipping containers, the instrumented MOUT facility at Majura Range showcased the concept of the $11 million, 300-plus container facility to be constructed at Shoalwater Bay.

DG Joint Combined Training Capability (JCTC) Project Brig Robert Brown said the mobile MOUT technology was designed to replicate complex urban environments.

“The beauty of the shipping container technology is you can change them around so the troops don’t become familiar with the setting,” Brig Brown said.

He said the prototype was made mainly to demonstrate the new instrumentation system that follows and records troops’ movements within the facility.

“You can track them through those training activities and at the end of it you can give them a very good after-action review,” he said. “It will be fully compatible with the technology going into the Combat Training Centre in Townsville.”

Brig Brown said the MOUT tracking system would be similar to the CTC, which used harnesses with GPS tracking to keep a record of troop movements.

He said the MOUT facility would be located at Shoalwater Bay Training Area as part of the JCTC project.

“The JCTC is a bilateral project between Australia and the US that is designed to develop training and interoperability between the Australian and US defence forces,” Brig Brown said.

He said the project would “also develop distributed training technologies so there’ll be a network set up so you can bring simulation into training”. The technology would allow soldiers using the instrumented MOUT facility to call aircrew that might be sitting in simulators in the US. The aircrew could respond directly to the soldiers over the radio and fly the mission in the simulator.

This technology would allow Australian and US forces to gain a better appreciation of how each worked and would enhance their interoperability.

Brig Brown said the Shoalwater Bay facilities would include an exercise control area and would accommodate up to a battle group-sized force. The Shoalwater Bay instrumented MOUT facility is due to be finished next June in time for the biannual Australia-US Exercise Talisman Sabre.