4GD completes British Garrison Urban Skills Facilities

4GD, the British SME specialising in realistic training facilities has completed the production of two new Garrison Urban Skills Facilities for the British Army, according to a 9th July press release. 

The two additional sites, based at Catterick Training Area in North Yorkshire and Rollestone near Salisbury, add to the existing 4GD training facility at 16 Air Assault Brigade’s base in Colchester. The company has also upgraded the urban training facility and Copehill Down Village, adding its audio visual capabilities to make it a more realistic environment. 

“4GD’s expanded footprint enables British Army units across the UK to access high-fidelity, urban warfare training environments designed to reflect the diverse, high-stakes scenarios soldiers are likely to encounter in real-world deployments,” Rob Taylor, founder and director of 4GD said. 

The Garrison Urban Skills Facilities are designed to provide onsite training in urban warfare for infantry units. They include 4GD’s SimWall, which is a modular and reconfigurable product that allows a training team to build different interior layouts of a building with ease. 

So, for example, they could quickly arrange the walls to represent a real building to rehearse ahead of a real operation. Or, rearrange the walls in between exercises to test infantry units and minimise their ability to predict what is coming. The facilities also have 4GAV systems, which add light, smoke and sound effects as well as detailed ‘after-action’ reviews to the facilities. 

Soldiers from 16 Brigade working with their 4GD urban training facility. Credit: 4GD 

“It really is a long overdue enhancement to the Defence Training Estate which fully enables the achievement of platoon level urban training objectives in a controlled realistic urban environment,” Lt Col Gord Robinson (RANGERS), SO1 Optimisation, Land Warfare Centre explained. Previously, the training facilities for urban skills have been relatively simplistic and unchangeable, which limits the value of training on them. 

Each of the Garrison Urban Skills Facilities could also be upgraded with 4GD’s SimStriker, which is a set of robotic targets that respond to the presence of a unit moving through the facility. They might, for example, shout upon hearing movement, or “coordinate” with other robotic targets. They can also be shot with simulated ammunition, which is in use at the Colchester facility, and enables units to more realistically simulate room clearances. 

Furthermore, all three of the facilities established by 4GD can be connected virtually to create an even larger and more complex training complex. The company has been working for some time on hybrid training capabilities that blend real world training with training simulators. This can enable drones, snipers, or indirect fire to be integrated into a real-world training scenario. 

The facilities are British Army owned but are developed and managed through a collaboration between the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), Landmarc Support Services (Landmarc), and specialist companies like 4GD, the company told Calibre Defence via email. 

Calibre comment

The British Army has adopted a range of simulators into its training establishment, many of which are digital and simulate most elements of a soldier’s role. This can be an efficient way to practice the skills needed at a lower cost; a JTAC simulator can minimise the need to fly a Typhoon over a training range, for example. Simulation is also positioned as a key element of the recent Strategic Defence Review, and is seen as a route to address the limited training estate available to the British armed forces. 

However, there is always a need for real life training to test and explore the types of procedures that are too difficult to simulate. Developing and delivering a divisional level fireplan, for example, or conducting the logistics needed to support a corps during wartime. These are challenges that can only be tested in the real world. Urban warfare is arguably another, although truly simulating the scale and complexity of urban combat for an exercise is likely impossible, it is at least feasible to improve realism for section-level tactics. 

By Sam Cranny-Evans, published on 10th July, 2025. The lead image shows a 4GD SimWall facility. Credit: 4GD.