Review: CQB Class June 2016: Jason

June 2026 CQB – Jason

I have been attending classes at MVT for a couple of years. I predominantly attend live-fire classes, but this is my third AirSim force-on-force class.

The first day of class is live-fire on a square range. Basic weapons handling and safety drills are conducted until the class is ready to proceed with more complex move-and-shoot exercises. Barricades and doorways are setup on the flat range to represent a three-dimensional room and students breach entryways and engage targets in an effort to practice footwork and target acquisition. This day is fun, engaging static targets while practicing the fundamentals that would be used the next three days of class.

The second and third day of class is airsoft AirSim against a live opponent. The OPFOR for MVT is a well-rehearsed and dedicated group of individuals from out of the area that travel significant distance to participant in the class in a training capacity in order to give the best possible experience for the students. OPFOR is well trained and very lethal, making for a significant challenge in breaching rooms and clearing the CQB facility.

The CQB facility is a wooden structure with multiple points of ingress (doors) across the perimeter of the building. There are multiple room along the outer wall of the building covered with roofing, flanking a sub-divided central courtyard that’s open air. There are multiple entry ways, windows, center-fed/corner-fed doors, and courtyards for the opponent to hide in making the simulation continuously replayable.

Days two and three progress in difficulty; starting with breach and entry on static targets, then live opponents. Entry and clearing are trained utilizing both two man and four man teams. In the beginning, hits might be ignored or reset, but as training progresses, the losses you take are permanent and effect your team size and resources to clear the building for the remainder of the exercise.

Day four is the capstone of the class. Two four man teams are combined into an eight-man squad with an additional squad leader. From a distance out of line of site of the compound, the squad leader plans the mission and sandtables the approach, assault, breach, and clearing of the compound for the benefit of the two teams and their respective team leaders. The squad leader, and his team leaders, then conduct and assault on the building; suppressing doors and windows, stacking doorways entry, conducting multiple simultaneous breaches and room clearing, all the while avoiding fratricide inside the compound utilizing good communication techniques. These assaults are conducted multiple times, rotating squad leadership, and approaches to simulate different tactics and techniques. For my class, a student even had a drone that we flew over the compound to conduct reconnaissance and locate OPFOR patterns of life and movement.

The more AirSim classes that I attend, the more I like them. Live fire class is great for getting the fundamental gun handling skills necessary to be successful, but the AirSim classes against a live OPFOR are critical for testing yourself in a stressful situation with consequences for failure. I learned a lot from this class and fully intend to take it again to continue to refine my footwork and movement techniques as well as challenge myself against a world-class OPFOR.