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Lejeune opens mobile MOUT facility

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — The pop, pop, pop of automatic gunfire and blunt blasts of ordnance flooded the ears of visitors Tuesday at the opening of the Marine Corps’ first mobile military operations in urban terrain facility on the East Coast.

“This completely knocks my socks off,” said Lt. Gen. James Amos, commander of Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, Va. “This is second to none.”

The mobile MOUT, modeled after an Iraqi town, was a concept Amos hoped to see become reality at Camp Lejeune when he was II Marine Expeditionary Force’s commanding general from July 2004 to August 2006. He was one of several high-ranking officers on hand for the MOUT’s official opening ceremony.

Marines will begin using the training facility next month.

Video:

MOUT training in Kuwait

Tucked off a main road on the base among tall pine trees, the facility consists of more than 70 buildings. It has a market place, 21 spider holes, 13 moving targets, a tunnel complex, and battlefield effects simulators. Speakers are placed throughout the facility to sound the call of prayer and Iraqi role players will be contracted to roam the streets.

Named Nisr min Al-Bahar or “Eagles from the Sea,” the MOUT spans nearly 30 acres and cost more than $15 million to build.

The buildings, some reaching three stories high, are actually 8-foot-by-40-foot shipping containers. These containers can be rearranged for future training scenarios.

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Video: MOUT training in Kuwait