Corps awards MOUT phase 2 contract
By Daniel J. Calderón

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District has awarded the contract for phase two of the Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) site on Fort Irwin, Calif. to Cox Construction Co. The contract is worth nearly $13 million.

The MOUT site is part of the National Training Center (NTC) on Fort Irwin, Calif. During World War II, the Corps of Engineers built a desert training facility for General Patton in less than 40 days. The latest facility is designed to simulate urban conditions to soldiers training for deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. Troops currently use other facilities at the NTC.
 
Buildings at the newest MOUT site stand up to four-stories high and are honeycombed with halls, secret passages, and rooms set in patterns designed to test Soldiers’ skills.
 
“All of that adds to the complexity of the buildings and makes it more difficult when Soldiers have to come in and clear rooms and look for insurgents or whatever the training mission is,” said Capt. Seth Henson, with the L.A. District’s Fort Irwin office.
 
The new precast concrete construction allows for more flexibility in construction than in the past. Once every phase of construction is complete, actors like those at other sites on the NTC will provide additional levels of realism to the simulation. This will allow trainers to assault every one of the Soldiers’ senses as they go through the MOUT facility.

“We train as we fight,” said Henson. “The MOUT site will provide world-class training for the world’s finest Soldiers.