CommunityEditor
01-19-2009, 11:46 PM
JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — About a year from now, Camp Lejeune, N.C., will introduce a training course to help Marines identify improvised explosive devices.
The Joint IED Defeat Course will include about two miles of asphalt and gravel roads, 17 buildings forming two mock villages, and culverts, curbs and guardrails — all popular IED hiding places. And it will feature the sights, sounds and smoke of roadside bomb attacks.
“It’s as realistic as it gets,” said Mark Maloney, deputy director of Range Development and Management for Marine Corps Installations-East.
Marines already receive IED training during Mojave Viper exercises at the Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Calif., and during Cajun Viper at Fort Polk, La. This course will complement that.
“We’re trying to train ... all the Marines on the installation before and after their training mostly out West,” Maloney said.
The course will be built at Lejeune’s Greater Sandy Run Training Area, spanning more than 40,000 acres south of the base’s main side. Construction will begin in the coming months, and the course should be complete later this year or in early 2010, Maloney said.
Training will run about 2½ days and will be broken into three sub-courses that, combined, are designed for a company-sized infantry unit. The first will consist of two large circles of asphalt, gravel and paved roadways. There, Marines will learn about things like typical IED placement and how IEDs are wired.
The second course will have a four-lane asphalt road spanning 1,000 meters. It will be lined by guard rails, curbs, sidewalks and buildings.
The third course will be twice as long, Maloney said, with more guardrails, more culverts and an overpass, allowing Marines to train at “a little bit higher speed.”
“If we see something new on the battlefield, it shouldn’t be new to the guys when they get there,” Maloney said. “We’re integrating those things here as fast as technology allows.”
The course will offer a more realistic experience than what is offered at the mobile military operations in urban terrain facility opened at Lejeune less than two years ago, officials said. Though it’s made to look like an Iraqi village, the MOUT’s 18-foot- to 20-foot-wide gravel roads are missing features insurgents use to strike American troops.
“It doesn’t have curves, it doesn’t have sidewalks, it doesn’t have culverts under the roads,” Maloney said of the MOUT. Roadside bombs are “the enemy’s combat choice with us instead of engaging us face to face. This training is specifically focused on trying to reduce that advantage.”
The Corps plans to build similar courses at Camp Pendleton and at Twentynine Palms.
Article: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/01/marine_iedcourse_011909w/
The Joint IED Defeat Course will include about two miles of asphalt and gravel roads, 17 buildings forming two mock villages, and culverts, curbs and guardrails — all popular IED hiding places. And it will feature the sights, sounds and smoke of roadside bomb attacks.
“It’s as realistic as it gets,” said Mark Maloney, deputy director of Range Development and Management for Marine Corps Installations-East.
Marines already receive IED training during Mojave Viper exercises at the Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Calif., and during Cajun Viper at Fort Polk, La. This course will complement that.
“We’re trying to train ... all the Marines on the installation before and after their training mostly out West,” Maloney said.
The course will be built at Lejeune’s Greater Sandy Run Training Area, spanning more than 40,000 acres south of the base’s main side. Construction will begin in the coming months, and the course should be complete later this year or in early 2010, Maloney said.
Training will run about 2½ days and will be broken into three sub-courses that, combined, are designed for a company-sized infantry unit. The first will consist of two large circles of asphalt, gravel and paved roadways. There, Marines will learn about things like typical IED placement and how IEDs are wired.
The second course will have a four-lane asphalt road spanning 1,000 meters. It will be lined by guard rails, curbs, sidewalks and buildings.
The third course will be twice as long, Maloney said, with more guardrails, more culverts and an overpass, allowing Marines to train at “a little bit higher speed.”
“If we see something new on the battlefield, it shouldn’t be new to the guys when they get there,” Maloney said. “We’re integrating those things here as fast as technology allows.”
The course will offer a more realistic experience than what is offered at the mobile military operations in urban terrain facility opened at Lejeune less than two years ago, officials said. Though it’s made to look like an Iraqi village, the MOUT’s 18-foot- to 20-foot-wide gravel roads are missing features insurgents use to strike American troops.
“It doesn’t have curves, it doesn’t have sidewalks, it doesn’t have culverts under the roads,” Maloney said of the MOUT. Roadside bombs are “the enemy’s combat choice with us instead of engaging us face to face. This training is specifically focused on trying to reduce that advantage.”
The Corps plans to build similar courses at Camp Pendleton and at Twentynine Palms.
Article: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/01/marine_iedcourse_011909w/