Centre d'entraînement aux actions en zone urbaine



The Centre d’entrainement aux actions en zone urbaine (Urban Zone Combat Training Center) (CENZUB) is a purpose-built facility for training French armed forces in urban warfare skills. It is located at Sissonne in north-eastern France. It is the largest training area of its type in Europe. There are two constructed districts - Beausejour and Jeoffrecourt.

British Army units have used the facility while learning French urban tactics and using French equipment. This part of a wider programme for Anglo-French military cooperation following the Defence and Security Co-operation Treaty signed by British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in November 2010.

Facilities
CENZUB offers several varied urban training environments:
 * Technical and tactical skills acquisition module (Module d'acquisition des savoir-faire techniques et tactiques - MASTTAC)
 * A street with roofless houses. Instructors are able to observe trainees and to move ahead to adjust the environment during training sessions.


 * Beauséjour
 * The village of Beauséjour consists of 63 different houses, a variety of obstacles (barriers, barricades, rubble), different types of streets (wide, narrow, S-shaped or unobstructed). It consists in various modules:
 * the village itself
 * a slum area in which it is impossible to enter with vehicles
 * a caravan camp
 * a street made up from 20-foot standard container, to refresh skills
 * a hamlet intended to show various ways in which a building could be "hardened", ie, made more defensible (setting up sandbags on the floor, booby traps, etc).


 * The ammunition depot
 * a former warehouse where trainees can test their skills in progressing as a unit.


 * Thuillots
 * An "old town" district located in the military camp, still partially occupied, especially by CENZUB's mechanical workshops. It simulates the outskirts of a village (woods, road, field, track) with several large buildings.


 * Jeoffrecourt
 * The village of Jeoffrecourt represents a town of 5000 inhabitants, with tall buildings, commercial areas. It will simultaneously engage all military resources, including infantry, armour, artillery, engineers and aircraft. It has a main objective of training and restitution.


 * Urban firing complex (Complexe de Tir en Zone UrBaine - CT ZUB)
 * This range enables firing in an urban environment to add realism to the training.


 * Opposing force (FORce ADverse - FORAD)
 * 105 personnel (including women) act as opposing forces or civilians for realism. They are structured as a mixed company with two infantry sections on VAB armoured personnel carriers or trucks, a tank platoon with AMX-30 tanks and an engineering section equipped with MPG and EBG. This unit is able to play the role of a regular combat unit, militia, or civilian refugees, depending on the scenario.