May 2000

Zap, got you! (page 4)

(For the second year in a row, over 650 Army Reserve soldiers from across southern Ontario took the bus, and spent their March Break in Fort Knox, Kentucky.)

Under the guidance of an American instructor, a Canadian reservist demonstrates how to negotiate the course on the Poorman Night Infilration Range. (Photo by Capt Mihail Murgoci)

Commanded by RCMI member, and Commanding Officer of the Royal Regiment of Canada, LCol Gary Stafford. This year, part of their training included being the first non-American soldiers to use a new state-of-the-art facility in it's final stages of construction. Called the Mounted Urban Combat Training Site (MOUT), it is located on a 26 acre site and is planned to be completed and in service by the 26th May 2000.

The MOUT facility consists of 22 separate buildings, including a church with a spire, a residential area, offices, stores, and a sewer system. For health reasons the sewer has rather unpleasant water, but no sewage, gases can be added as needed, on request. A water tower located in the southern portion of the site, is Range Control. It is the source of all surprises for the attacking soldiers. From there, at a mission control type console, the staff can look down and monitor the progress of troops advancing from building to building visually, and by closed-circuit television. With the flick of a switch the staff can send an apparently abandoned car along a hidden tract towards the soldiers, have a vehicle or one of several buildings burst into flames. If and when a soldier gets into a building, motion sensors help range control track their movements. This allows for grenades to be released on unsuspecting soldiers in stairwells. While the MOUT site has been designed to be as realistic as possible, it is still a controlled environment. It can never possibly replace the ultimate shock of war, but the MOUT site in Fort Knox, Kentucky, is as good as it gets.

LCol Gary Stafford (C) explains the MOUT training that his soldiers are undergoing to Col Chris Carrigan, Commander of Land Force Central Area. (Photo by Capt Vic Goldman)

While our troops were on the ground, the technically complex site was constantly being tweaked. One morning, a car that was supposed to erupt, barely sputtered. After lunch the same vehicle momentarily disappeared in a 40' high fireball that had been engineered to greet the attacking force without eviscerating them. The MOUT has been designed to train and instil troops with the necessary skills to survive, and fight though a built-up area without being injured in the process. Each soldier was issued with, or had between 900 to 1,000 blank rounds available to them, that equals just over 33 full, 30 round magazines. This necessitated a well planned re-supply system at the platoon and section level. Each of the four scheduled attacks required up to 200,000 blank rounds. Troops were issued with earplugs and goggles.

All the participating soldiers wore laser sensors on their helmets and their webbing known by the acronym MILES. The soldier's rifles, light and medium machine-guns were all fitted with a laser unit that fired a pulse each time the weapon is discharged. The weapon sights were zeroed using a computer system before the exercise. Individuals involved in a near-miss heard a buzz from a horn, on their harness. If the soldier was hit in the body or the head, the alarm system would give off a very irritating wail. The soldier, now a causality, could deactivate the alarm system only by removing the key from the laser unit on the rifle. This however disabled the weapon's laser unit. The MILES laser system offers unparalleled realism in aim and shoot line-of-site engagements. Using this equipment gone are the endless arguments about who shot who first, or an unrealistic casualtyless frontal attack.

A section of infantry advance under the cover of smoke through the MOUT facility. (Photo by Capt Mihail Murgoci)

While in Fort Knox the Canadians trained on the Poorman Night Infiltration Range. They had to crawl over two log obstacles and under two low entanglements at night, while three C6 machines-guns fired live rounds over their heads. They also used the bayonet, grenade and live fire pairs range. While the soldier's families back in Canada enjoyed the pleasures of the last winter days in Ontario, the troops in Kentucky were working in temperatures of up to 70°F. RCMI who Members took part in the exercise included: LCol Gary Stafford, Maj Liam Robertson, Maj Mike Trayner, Capt Dwayne Hobbs, Capt Keith Lawrence, Capt Mihail Murgoci, Capt Ted Optiz, and Capt Stephen Roberts.

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