March 29,2008: The U.S. Marine Corps is spending $15 million to expand its MOUT (Military Operations Urban Terrain) facilities at Camp Lejune, North Carolina. The expansion area will contain 75 buildings, most of them constructed to allow for repeated urban warfare training. Some of the buildings will be for training staff or trainee support. The new facility will be ready by late 2009. The army and marines have spent several hundred million dollars in the last five years, to construct these urban training areas. Even in Afghanistan, a lot of the fighting gets done in, or around, buildings. To get troops ready for this kind of combat, you need training areas that mimic the urban terrain that will be encountered in the battle zone.