‘Zero-Kilometer’ Urban Combat

My car startles three deers while I am driving the gravelly forest road that is just as wide as a car. Of course, the large vehicle is not the only disturbing factor that does not leave alone the wild animals of the forest today: the shots fired from rifles and machine guns can be heard from the distance. I am approaching Ruin City.

Ruin City, deep in the forest, belongs to the Újdörögd Training Base of HDF Bakony Combat Training Centre. The training facility built in a rather Socialist Realist style and resembling a deserted town is one of the bases of the Hungarian Defence Forces where the troops can learn and practice the basics of urban warfare.

There is a white smoke building up among the buildings, occasional muzzle fires can be seen in a few places, and the sound of gunfire echoes around the place. It seems that the attack has already begun…

– The first platoon has moved forward, they also know which two buildings they have to occupy. Let’s see what they are capable of – Lieutenant Colonel László Szabó, the leader of special training group No. 1 of HDF Kinizsi Pál Non-Commissioned Officers’ Training School (KPTSZI) of Szentendre welcomes me in the temporary parking lot of the ruined town.

He is the commander of the sixty-six NCO students who are learning the basics of urban warfare in Ruin City this week. They are graduate, regular, and correspondence students of KPTSZI, majoring in infantry and engineering.

Lt.Col. Szabó tells me that the correspondence students (that is contractual personnel to be trained as NCOs) majoring in infantry have already been to Ruin City six months ago, when they mastered the basics of urban combat. Therefore the squad commanders of regular students have been selected from them by the instructors of KPTSZI, in other words, they will lead the attacking squads. This is useful for them for two reasons. On the one hand the current task perfectly fits in the curriculum of their subject called ‘the methodology of training’, on the other hand as future sergeants they will also play an active part in the training of their subordinates.

– Regular students majoring in infantry see combat in a built-up area for the first time in their life. We can say that they are ’zero-kilometer’ participants at the one-week training where they have to learn the basics of urban warfare on fire group, squad, and platoon-level, in combat-like conditions. We complete the task repeatedly until all of them have worked as commander of the fire group at least once – says Lt.Col. Szabó, who also tells me that engineering troops are practicing the special tactical tasks that occur in urban warfare.

Building search, recognition of home-made explosive devices, opening passage-ways – lists Captain (Eng.) Tamás Bakos, the engineering instructor of the training school. He adds: naturally, urban combat is a compulsory subject for engineering troops as well, therefore they also participate in the training. They are working in groups of four as the engineering groups of infantry platoons.

What are the basics of urban warfare? – I ask László Szabó, while the attacking platoon is heading for the designated brick building step by step, with unceasing fire. Practicing moving around in populated areas, approaching buildings, invading facilities, and clearing rooms, corridors and staircases of enemy combatants is the main aim of this training – says the lieutenant colonel, while the guns become silent in just a second. It is a bit difficult for our ears to get used to the silence.

‘Every enemy is dead, we have occupied the building!’ – the platoon commander reports on the radio, and since the look on my face gives it away that I don’t understand it, Lt.Col. Szabó explains: they have made every effort to conclude the training in very realistic circumstances and asked for the help of HDF Bakony Combat Training Centre (BHK). BHK stores the MILES 2000 type laser simulation system that supports the training of the troops. With the help of the system even a combat fought with blank charges can be realistic.

Major Róbert Selek, the head of BHK’s department in charge of evaluating the performance of infantry and combat vehicles tells me that MILES is a simulation device parts of which have to be assembled onto the guns, and other parts on the personnel. Upon ‘firing’ a blank charge, the device on the gun sends a laser impulse which, provided it hits the sensors on the helmet and the chest of the troops, gives a beeping sound to signal that the soldier in question is disabled, in other words, wounded or dead. This allows the attackers to ‘feel it themselves’ how many casualties there are when they occupy a building.

Of course, you also need an enemy to have a realistic fight. In the non-commissioned officers’ school of Szentendre it is already a tradition that during their urban combat trainings the bad guys are played by the troops of BHK’s opponent force. So it is natural that the boys from Várpalota are here to assist the preparation of the future non-commissioned officers – says Major Selek, adding: the so-called evaluation personnel are also from Bakony Combat Training Centre. Moving behind the attackers, it is them who decide whether the goal has been achieved, that is if the designated building has been occupied successfully. Moreover it is also them who ’revive’ the ’dead’ soldiers between two implementation stages with their special manual devices, in other words, they delete the hits from the memory of the combatants’ MILES devices.

Lt.Col. László Szabó also tells me that since they can use Ruin City for urban combat training only for a limited amount of time – one week every six months – they make every effort to use their time there in the most practical way. The scheduled tasks are executed several times a day. Naturally, they do not start with platoon-level implementation but with the independent activities of fire pairs, then squads.

In the meantime the first shot is fired on the other side of Ruin City and the smoke bombs ensuring concealment are lit: the second platoon has also approached the building to be occupied. Soon there is great battle in which both the attackers and the defenders have major casualties. Then the last bad guy ’falls’, they are outnumbered and lose, and the commander of the platoon terminates the attack.

The break feels good for everyone, and after a short evaluation the NCO students immediately start to prepare for the next implementation phase that is due to begin in just an hour. They check their guns and equipments and load ammunition. They also tell me that they are enjoying the MILES simulation system very much because ’there is a real stake in an attack’. If they do a bad job, the enemy hiding in the houses can shoot nearly all of them in a few seconds.

When the ’bad guys’, the troops of BHK’s opponent force company hear this, they say: considering that for the majority of the boys this is the first visit to Ruin City, they do it quite well. Of course, they have to improve, but this is what trainings are for!