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If a movie can put together insane sets that look like 1950's new york, just for example, why can't the US Army put up a mock up of Babhdad and let the grunts try it out for REAL.

They do. Well, not actually Baghdad, just a generic urban environment. They call it 'MOUT' (Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain) and shoot soap balls at each other, which they can fire from their real rifles and really do hurt when you get hit.

Americas Army has been around a while now training soldiers of all ages in basic combat.

This has different goals (as the guy says in the article).

If you really wanted a good sim, why not just use Paintball? It's probually as close as you can get without killing each other.

Simunitions. Paintball with real guns. And real pain.

Shortstop rounds are lethal - FX(R) Marking Cartridges are the paintballs.

The US Millitary currently uses an advance tactical simulation modual that attaches the the stock of a standard M-16 rifle of other equipment (aka missles, rocket launchers, M1A1 tanks, you name it) They then don laser vests that sense laser radiation emmited toward them.

The system is called MILES. It works quite well, but it also has some problems - hiding behind light foliage, for instance, will deflect the laser but would not stop a bullet.

Actually no they dont use ANY paintballs.

They do use paintballs, esp. for close quarters training (FIBUA - Fighting in Built-Up Areas etc...) where you don't need to worry about the slow speed or short effective range of the rounds. You can even get paintballs in NATO-standard 5.56mm rounds that will work in unmodified rifles. One version is called Shortstop, which is made by a company called Simunition.

The US Millitary currently uses an advance tactical simulation modual that attaches the the stock of a standard M-16 rifle of other equipment (aka missles, rocket launchers, M1A1 tanks, you name it) They then don laser vests that sense laser radiation emmited toward them.

The system is called MILES. It works quite well, but it also has some problems - hiding behind light foliage, for instance, will deflect the laser but would not stop a bullet.

Actually no they dont use ANY paintballs.

They do use paintballs, esp. for close quarters training (FIBUA - Fighting in Built-Up Areas etc...) where you don't need to worry about the slow speed or short effective range of the rounds. You can even get paintballs in NATO-standard 5.56mm rounds that will work in unmodified rifles. One version is called Shortstop, which is made by a company called Simunition.

A few posters have already pointed out that some police departments have deployed/are developing "stink bomb"/pepper spray projectiles. As for your comment about shooting them out of a normal service weapon, Simunition (produced by SNC Technologies) is a training ammunition similar to a paintball that can be fired from a standard side arm. Currently the ammunition requires the use of an adapter to prevent chambering of live ammunition.

While paintball always seems like a good idea and is brought up every time something like this article is posted, it is not that usefull. Paintballs tend to not work like real bullets in that small trees and leaves tend to stop the paintballs. They also tend to have a very limited range, unlike real bullets that can and do go for miles. What they can and do use is something called Simunition. This is a non lethal bullet that is fired from the very same guns that they will be using in real combat. The only thing needed is some sort of face protection. Its like advanced paintball. They even have shotguns outfitted with this stuff.