Have you heard about the fake city in Virginia? I bet not, but yes, it is in fact real. As a matter of fact, it’s built with incredible details, including schools and churches.

But the thing is, nobody actually lives there because it is not designed or intended for everyday life. So why was it created then?

It was actually created to train soldiers. It simulates the daily functions of a typical town, allowing soldiers to prepare for the real world in a controlled, yet realistic, setting. If you’re curious about what the fake city is all about, let’s explore more about it.

A Fake Town to Train Soldiers

We all know that most wars took place in rural areas, the mountains, and the deserts. However, in the 21st century, the battlefield has become more prone to occur in cities. That’s because most people are now living in the city.

Cities serve as the hub for politics, infrastructure, and communication. And therefore, cities are where warfare is most impactful, and it’s disturbing the lives of many busy people living and working in the city, with one of the biggest problems being the displacement of people in urban areas.

So, the Asymmetric Warfare Group had a thought: why not build a fake city in Virginia to simulate city life and familiarize themselves with the situation and complexity of the environment? And that’s what they did.

This training center of the United States is known as Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia's Caroline County, whose mission is to deal with improvised explosive devices. For over 300 acres of land in the battleground training complex, Fort A.P. Hill is a military training site for U.S. soldiers.

The fake city in Virginia is similar to a training camp, but the main difference is that it is larger and resembles a town. It’s only used as a training ground to make their soldiers readily available in the urban battlefield. It’s not used for daily living, so no one lives in the fake city.

What Operations Are Done Inside the Fake City?

Given that the fake city serves as a training camp, the complexity of the A.P. Hill training ground allows soldiers to train efficiently in crawling through small spaces, such as metal airways or ceiling ducts, or to develop smart movement techniques on subway platforms.

Imitating those spaces can be a great strategic move in times of true battle, as soldiers will be familiar with the urban battlefield.

The training center features the same establishments as a normal city, making the imitation and training more reliable and relevant. These establishments include physical stores, gas stations, soccer fields, religious establishments, tunnels, subway platforms, and real transportation structures.

It also provides soldiers with hands-on guidance to safely navigate complex environments and handle potential threats.

The fake city in Virginia is a great training ground for soldiers to familiarize themselves with the complex style of urban cities, where subways and narrow alleys are usually encountered.

The National Training Center in California

There’s another place like the fake city in Virginia. At Fort Irwin, the National Training Center in California has its own mock town as well.

Fort Irwin has a Middle Eastern-inspired village where vendors were selling fake bread and meat. Fort A.P. Hill was created to resemble a typical United States town, while Fort Irwin in California features a mock Iraqi village, known as Medina Wasl.

Fort Irwin caters to international cultural and social movements to understand the attitudes and perspectives of local communities. It’s also the same for Fort A.P. Hill, as soldiers must also understand the social and cultural challenges of interacting with foreign individuals to minimize misunderstandings and avoid actions that can worsen the situation.

The cities, though, are not entirely the same. Their only main similarity lies in serving as a training ground for simulating an urban environment in the event of future warfare.

What Happens if Cities Fail to Accelerate?

It’s indeed an issue to be concerned about, so people are learning, and as we learn more about urban warfare, there are people like David Kilcullen, who openly share insights about the future of cities.

Kilcullen calls it “future conflicts and future cities,” referring to what will happen if there are future wars, because they won’t be fought in remote deserts or mountain regions. They are most likely to happen in cities.

Battle training grounds that imitate the cities that we live in are really helpful in training soldiers so they can be fully prepared for modern warfare.

The fake city in Virginia certainly helps prepare soldiers for what could happen if a real city were to fall, but it also highlights the risks of what could go wrong if a city falls into the wrong hands.

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Sources:

• The Army Built a Fake City in Virginia to Train Its Troops
• What Happens When Cities Fall Apart?
• A History of Fort A. P. Hill
• A Tour Through the U.S. Army’s Largest Simulated Battlefield