The Israel Army was heavily criticised for relying too heavily on air power during the 2006 war with Hezbollah guerillas and for lacking the training for effective street-to-street fighting. The Army also came under public fire for failing the necessary training in urban combat that critics said would have been more effective in driving Hezbollah guerillas from the populated centres where they based their operations. As a result, the IDF's new leader, Lieutenant General Avi Ashkenazi, himself a veteran infantry commander, unveiled an Urban [Warfare] Training Center (UTC) which includes a simulated Arab urban area. Called 'Baladia' (town in Arabic) and located in the southern sector of the sprawling Tze'elim military base in the Negev desert, from a distance it looks like any Arab urban settlement.
"Baladia has everything an Arab town offers - a casbah and even a refugee camp," said LtCol Arik Moreh, Deputy Commander of the training complex. Just like in every real city the army built mosque and even a casbah, but if one gets permission to enter the site the visitor is immediately engulfed by noisy and violent urban battlefield."
And while 'Baladia City' won't match the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk in Louisiana - the 100,000-acre simulated microcosm of the Middle East used to train infantry brigade task forces deployed in the region - the Israeli facility offers the same high fidelity simulated battlefield technologies, force identification and location systems, and debriefing capabilities.
"At the moment, Baladia naturally resembles the sandy, arid terrain of the Palestinian coastal strip, as it was preparing operation Cast Lead last January," said Brigadier Uzi Moskovich, the UTC Commander.
"However, should Lebanon and Syria become the highest priority threat theatres, and creative engineering is required, we will transform the area into what IDF officers here call 'Hezbollahland'.