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Soltek Pacific Construction in San Diego, CA received a $17.6 million firm-fixed-price task order (#10) under a previously awarded multiple award construction contract (N62473-08-D 8615) for design and construction of a Marine Corps Combined Arms Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) training facility. The complex will be located at the Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command, Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, CA. Soltek expects to complete construction by January 2011. For this task order, 5 proposals were received by the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest in San Diego, CA.
The facility will be designed to provide a training area in which Marines can develop individual and unit skills needed to fight in an urban environment. By the year 2010, 75% of the world’s population will live in urban areas, according to the Army Field Manual on Combined Arms Operations in Urban Terrain. Urban areas are expected to be the future battlefield.
DID has more on urban combat…
The Army manual explains the need for training and combined arms in urban combat. The same imperatives also apply to the Marines:
“Urban combat is primarily a small unit infantry fight, requiring significant numbers of infantry to accomplish the mission; however, combined arms must support the infantry. Urban combat is characterized by moment-to-moment decisions by individual soldiers, which demonstrates the importance of ROE [rules of engagement] training…While UO [urban operations] historically have consisted of a high density of infantry-specific tasks, UO conducted purely by infantry units have proven to be unsound. Properly tasked-organized combined arms teams consisting primarily of infantry, engineers, and armor supported by other combat, CS [combat support], and CSS [combat service support] assets have proven to be more successful both in the offense and defense. The same concept is true for stability and support operations, when the main effort may not necessarily consist of combat units.”