USMC CAMOUT Training Facility

I was looking around in the desert (with GE) to see if one of my old posts survived the last scrape. It didn't. However, I found something very cool: a mock-up Afghanistan village.

Photo By: Staff Sgt. Carl Atherton

From a local newspaper article:

Shortly after Brig. Gen. H. Stacy Clardy III cut the ribbon on the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center’s new $170 million ur-ban warfare training facility Tuesday, Jan. 25, the base commanding general stood atop one of its 1,250 cargo-container buildings with an enthusiastic group of visitors and watched a platoon of Marines storm a building in one of its seven districts.


The men of 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment out of Camp Pendleton, in their fifth of 36 days of pre-deployment Enhanced Mojave Viper training at CAMOUT — short for Combined Arms Military Operations in Urban Terrain — roared up in light armored vehicles and tanks, barreling out to take up positions on the ground, rifles at the ready.


Small arms fire and the occasional boom of artillery shattered the silence of the desert at the base of Mount Hidalgo as the men maneuvered under the watchful eyes of trainers known as “coyotes,” moving closer and closer to the building with an IED-sniffing dog, finally entering the structure through an open window. [source]

Photo By: Cpl. M. C. Nerl

There's more info and lots of pictures at the official Marines website: Combat Center unveils Corps’ largest range

The GE imagery is hi-res and well worth a look.

MCAGCC 29 Palms.kmz (1.13 KB)

Most interesting, Gregg! The Panoramio photos on the site show the Quonset-type tents and even a fake cemetery (both in the wrong locations), among other things. I like how the layout reproduces the randomness of streets and building orientations.