U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground supports large Marine Corps training

Photo By Mark Schauer | In addition to things like shoot houses that allow for live fire, visiting units at U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) have access to dry fire rehearsal houses— some complete structures, some with half-height walls that give realistic constraint to maneuver while allowing others to observe and learn from the movements. “Traditionally, shoot house rehearsals are done by scratching lines on the ground or putting engineer tape on the ground, but that doesn’t give you any constraints of how the walls and corners are,” said Luis Arroyo, Chief of YPG's Training and Exercise Management Office.  

YUMA PROVING GROUND, ARIZONA, UNITED STATES

04.25.2025

Story by Mark Schauer 

U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground

Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) is the Army’s premier developmental tester yet has for years supported the twice-annual Weapons and Tactics Instructor (WTI) course in Yuma for Marine Corps aviators, ground combat planners, and support personnel.

Roughly 300 Marines of Camp Pendleton’s 2nd Battlation-5th Infantry spent just over a month living in YPG’s Forward Operating Base (FOB) Laguna, serving as the ground combat element in several training exercises for Marine Corps aviators.

“I think the biggest payoff for an infantry unit coming to YPG is that the conditions we give them mean they don’t have to start from scratch, but they’re also not in a luxury hotel,” said Luis Arroyo, Training and Exercise Management Office Chief. “They get to exercise some of the nuances of sustaining their own in an expeditionary environment. Here it is really structured to not just be thrown in a camp: they have to build their own camp and operate their own security for access control.”

YPG’s major mission is testing equipment for troops, but in recent years well over 100 units have utilized the installation for training purposes, including multi-week stays in the proving ground’s elaborate FOB. Training under real-world conditions, these troops usually spend their days at YPG’s firing ranges and taking part of WTI’s broader simulated missions. There are other benefits to the training that are less visible.

“An infantry unit getting to shoot is great, but the people that actually get a workout here are the command and the staff,” said Arroyo. “They have to coordinate with adjacent WTI units and their higher headquarters. It is a doctrinal-type evolution without being formally evaluated.”

The firing ranges visiting training units utilize are isolated and removed from the post’s testing activities, and even from different echelons of the same training units.

“We have to treat the surface danger zone as a flat map, but the reality is we have hills and can cubby the range into pockets that gives you a lot more confinement,” said Arroyo. “We continue to improve things. If we can give them conditions as close as possible to what they are actually going to do during live fires, that reduces the risk not only to the warfighter, but to their commander and our commander.”

In addition to things like shoot houses that allow for live fire, visiting units have access to dry fire rehearsal houses— some complete structure, some with half-height walls that give realistic constraint to maneuver while allowing others to observe and learn from the movements.

“Traditionally, shoot house rehearsals are done by scratching lines on the ground or putting engineer tape on the ground, but that doesn’t give you any constraints of how the walls and corners are,” said Arroyo.

YPG’s standardized ranges can accommodate training with all of the weapon systems used in support of a combat arms unit, including howitzers and TOW missiles.

• Date Taken: 04.25.2025
• Date Posted: 04.25.2025 08:53
• Story ID: 496108
• Location: YUMA PROVING GROUND, ARIZONA, US