The U.S. Army Built a Whole Town To Train Troops for War

War Is Boring

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And it looks really realistic.

The U.S. Army has finished building a 300-acre training area that’s pretty much a miniature city meant to be shot up and blown up in the interest of combat readiness.

The Asymmetric Warfare Training Center at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia cost $96 million and is designed to “replicate complex operational environments,” according to the Army’s Asymmetric Warfare Group, which “owns” the training site.

(This article by Joe Trevithick originally appeared at War is Boring in 2014.)

In addition to the usual firing ranges and administrative facilities, the AWTC has a number of full-size structures, said to include a five-story embassy, bank, school, subway station, train station, helicopter landing zone, bridge and more.

Video footage from the January opening ceremony also shows a church, although it’s unclear whether this is one of the training structures. All of the buildings appear to be highly realistic, especially when compared to other urban training facilities that rely heavily on simple, generic structures—often made of plywood.

For example, the subway station features rail cars either purchased straight from Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Area Transit Authority—or modeled to look like them, right down to the logos. Real rail cars also feature in the above-ground train station.