SHAH ALAM: Army chief Jen. Zulkiple Kassim today inaugurated the Operation in Built Up Area (OBUA) training facility at the service’s combat training centre (Pulada) at Kem Ulu Tiram, Johor. The OBUA facility was built at the southern firing range of Pulada.
The new facility was dubbed the Zulkiple’s Urban Combat Village (ZuCOV) in honour of the Army chief, the service says in a statement. ZuCOV was completely funded by the Australian Army as part of the Defence Cooperation Programme between Australia and Malaysia.
Zulkiple later told reporters that soldiers need to be trained in urban warfare as it was different from jungle warfare which the Army excels in.
Someone posted on Twitter that the OBUA facility was the first in Malaysia and Asia. He is probably correct on the Malaysian angle though as for Asia…well there is another more sophisticated one just across the straits.
Based on the pictures from the Army the facility is a very basic one, fashioned together out of shipping containers. Hopefully this will be the start of something better.
Anyhow, it appears that the Army is serious in modernising its training facilities though it is obvious the lack of financing is a big stumbling block to its aspirations. While field training is continuing the lack of an open live training facility where all the elements of the Army could trained together meant that new theories and ideas could not be fully tested.
Recently, the Army opened its simulated training facility at its Simulation centre at Kem Sirajuddin in Gemas. Hopefully the new facilities will be further upgraded in the future while new ones are also set up.
— Malaysian Defence
If you like this post, buy me an espresso. Paypal Payment
View Comments (22)
Not that we didn't have a mout training before but previously it was done in abandoned housing project
Killing house on the cheap?
i think it is more realistic to do mount training in abandoned housing project than doing it in container. just my two kupang
Singapore is building a new state of the art representation of buildings found in their country to train their soldiers
I do agree with neptune,at least the other army units can also be involved.if I am not mistaken Pt91s were use during such training.
There's few safety issue with using abandoned housing project tho. One of them is the risk of building collapse.
Also, most of these abandoned structure is near human settlements so there's also the safety of the people nearby
Reply
In urban warfare one of the challenges are collapsing structures. Though I admit that in training this should be mitigated
There's nothing wrong with having a small training facility. It's people who massively overstate its importance as "first in Asia" that makes everyone look stupid.
Election is coming and the smallest things are being played up. Practically no money has been allocated for the long overdue 4x MPA and here you are talking about P-8. Please, before you say things like 'this budget will make our ATM to be the strongest military in the region" think about how stupid you look.
Our missiles are expiring without replacement, and there is no budget in sight to replace them. To the point that we paraded retired Aspide missiles on Merdeka Day.
If you are toking abt sg murai urban training town it complete many years ago. There is much larger urban training area being build and will have sky scraper tall buildings i suppose like sg cbd.
Anyone wondered who's the Australian guy in the photo? Just an observer for the event, the Defence Attache or an Australian infantry officer here on attachment? In the past we had Royal Australian Armoured Corps officers on attachment here at PD.
Marawi was a wake up call for the Philippines army. They've never faced anything like it.
Reply
The Australian soldier is attached to Pulada while female officer is the DA
Whether it looks ''basic'' or not or is in containers rather than gold plated walls; it's a good start. At least it's a permanent MOUT/FIBUA facility owned by the army. If anything it shows the army's moving in the right direction [in addition to Exs Stallion in 2013, bilateral foreign exercises including with Singapore have included MOUT/FIBUA training] and is addressing the need for units to have adequate MOUT/FIBUA training. The question is how often will units get the opportunity to do so? Also, are we taking steps to draw up a MOUT/FIBUA doctrine and equip units with non traditional but absolutely needed stuff like ladders, jack hammers and megaphones?
Given the rapid urbanisation taking place in this country; any future conflict will most certainly be fought in an urban rather than a jungle or rural environment. We can't assume or take for granted that the circumstances faced during Ops Daulat - non state actors in a plantation - will be replicated again. One only has to look at a map to see how many Malaysian towns and cities are a stone's throw away from a shared border.
Neptune - ''i think it is more realistic to do mount training in abandoned housing project than doing it in container.''
The level and intensity of the training and its regularity is what makes the difference.
AM - ''who massively overstate its importance as “first in Asia” that makes everyone look stupid.''
Indeed. Don't forget the ''most sophisticated'' many are fond of - as if ''most sophisticated'' automatically equates with ''most effective'' or ''practical.
Reply
Actually the Army had wanted to buy the abandoned buildings/area in Bukit Beruntung used during Ex Stallion for OBUA but not approved