Photo By Cpl. Jaye Townsend | U.S. Marine Corps UH-1Y Venom helicopter assigned to Marine Aviation Weapons and...... read more read more
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When you step onto Yuma Test Center’s (YTC) K-9 Village at Yuma Proving Ground (YPG), it’s like stepping into another country.
The village has temples, bridges, a shopping alley, cars, and a speaker playing background ambient sounds that would be heard in a village. None of the buildings are aligned, which was designed intentionally. YPG’s Training Exercise Management Office (TEMO) maintains the location.
“We started building it in 2005 specifically to support military working dog training,” said Luis Arroyo, TEMO Chief. “It is one of six facilities built throughout the range for multiple working dog programs prior to 2020. Since then, we’ve had sporadic dog training at YPG, the majority of which have been for multi-purpose canines (MPC).”
The K-9 Village provides the infrastructure for diverse types of training and can accommodate anything from dismounted patrolling and military operations in urban terrain, convoy operations, explosive detection and testing by YTC.
One return customer is the U.S. Marines. The Marines use the village yearly, during the Weapons and Tactics Instructor (WTI) course which provides standardized advanced tactical training and readiness and assists in developing and employing aviation weapons and tactics. During WTI it’s common to see helicopters hovering over the village with Marines performing battle drill exercises.
Maj. Matthew “Pit Stop” Piotrowicz, UH-1Y Instructor Pilot at Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron One, said, “The K-9 village provides a unique opportunity for the UH-1Y to conduct a diverse range of landing profiles in a single location. Execution of rapid insert and extract tactics are rarely performed in the fleet due to range limitations but in a single range we can conduct roof top landings, hoist, fast rope inserts, rappel inserts, reduced visibility landings, urban confined area landings, and casualty evacuations.”
The village found north of YPG peaks out of the horizon. While the village is not extremely remotely located, its backdrop of the hot desert, mountainous region and real-life desert dangers provides a training space like no other.
A Special Operations industry partner, whose team trained with several Military Working Dogs remarked to TEMO’s Kevin Hunt that, “The depth of the training area when it comes to working our K9's is well thought out and allows for numerous scenarios. The realism as well is excellent and not your standard Conex box range that you find quite frequently. I was not aware that this location was here and available. We will be adding this to future planning evolutions.”
The buildings are more than Hollywood props, they are actual structures with rooms that can be staged with real-life scenarios found in a warzone. There are rooftops for snipers, hidden compartments for enemies, and doors to bust through. All these variables place the warfighter in situations where they can test their physical abilities and decision making skills.
With the WTI training presently underway the village is once again serving its purpose of providing a training ground to strengthen the skills and lethality of America’s Warfighters.
| Date Taken: | 04.08.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 04.08.2025 18:06 |
| Story ID: | 494868 |
| Location: | YUMA PROVING GROUND , ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 161 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, YPG’s training village provides a realistic environment for training, by Ana Henderson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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