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| Zussman Mounted Urban Training Complex |
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| Location:
Fort Knox, KY |
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| Client: U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, Louisville, KY |
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 The
Department of Defense enlisted the expertise of
Polyengineering, Inc., to design and engineer a training facility that
would prepare U.S. troops for the chaos, confusion, stress, and
pressure of war in an urban environment. The mock city had to be large
enough to host a training exercise for a company/battalion task force
with helicopters, armor, infantry and Bradley Fighting Vehicles and
versatile enough to pose as a town located virtually anywhere in the
world.
The solution is Zussman Mounted Urban Training Complex. Situated on 26
acres of rocky wilderness at Fort Knox, KY, this $13 Million project
provides the setting for soldiers to get the dramatic, hands-on
experience needed to effectively fight and win a war on an urban
battlefield. The MUCTS has 16 buildings resembling the residential,
industrial, and government structures. The training site’s
command/control/observation facility is camouflaged as a mock elevated
water tower. The 4-Story Range Control Tower has 3 operating levels
and provides a 360 degree visual of the entire range, all of which is
in video range through strategic placement of fiber optic video
cameras.
 In order to subject the troops to extreme levels of physical and
psychological stress typically experienced in an actual urban
conflict, a system of Hollywood special effects was used that had
never been used for military purposes. Soldiers training at MUCTS will
experience first-hand the sights and smells of war, including speaker
driven sound effects simulating riot, fire, uprising, screams and
voices in various languages (the language is programmed by the
trainer). During the exercise they will encounter a burning gas
station; a timed falling utility pole that blocks the roadway and even
smell the sewer while crawling through the more than 900 lineal feet
of 48-inch sewer pipe. Hidden features are included in the design to
maximize the soldier’s stress levels, such as an exploding, collapsing
bridge (which is structurally stable for a tank crossing when not in
collapsing mode); hand grenades that shoot out of a hidden passage and
drop at the soldier’s feet; 22 different locations within the compound
that can suddenly ignite into flames; and a massive automobile
explosion.
Zussman Mounted Urban Training Complex stands today as a hallmark of
excellence in urban combat training, hailed by many training experts as
the best and most realistic urban training facility in the world.
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