Tucked into Jennings County, Indiana, the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center (MUTC) is one of the most unique training environments in the country—1,000 acres of urban and rural terrain designed to prepare defenders across military, government, and civilian sectors. Operated by the Indiana National Guard, MUTC is recognized as the DoD’s largest and most realistic urban training facility, built to support modern, multi-domain operations.

What’s on the ground at MUTC?

Muscatatuck isn’t just “mock buildings on a field.” It’s a full, living “city” where every structure is “in play,” paired with realistic infrastructure and even subterranean spaces. The installation supports training in dense urban terrain, integrates physical and information technology environments, and lets teams rehearse the kinds of complex incidents they’ll face in the real world.

A major differentiator is its cyber training environment. MUTC’s cyber program deliberately blends three layers—physical, logical, and cyber-persona—so teams can practice on realistic networks, devices, and scenarios (think city-scale systems, comms, enterprise networks, and operational technology). In short: it’s built for research, development, testing, training, and evaluation across the full competition continuum. 

High school educators at National Guard Trios Academy promoting education and cybersecurity. Why K–12 should care: the cybersecurity pipeline starts in high school

Visiting and learning about Muscatatuck drove home a simple point: our security workforce of tomorrow is sitting in today’s classrooms. Indiana has already taken steps to expand access: the state maintains K–8 computer science standards, offers multiple high school CS courses, and has adopted computer science as a graduation requirement beginning with the Class of 2029. That policy move matters; it normalizes computing as core literacy and widens the funnel into programs like Ivy Tech’s Cyber Academy.

Nationally, organizations like the College Board are pushing to meet demand by getting AP Computer Science courses (AP Computer Science Principles and AP Computer Science A) into more high schools. AP CSP, in particular, was designed as a broad, welcoming on-ramp to computing and has been shown to expand participation for students historically underrepresented in STEM. 

In Indiana specifically, the Department of Education’s Next Level Computer Science initiatives have been investing in teacher training—preparing K–5 educators to integrate CS standards and equipping more teachers to deliver high school courses like 4565 Computing Foundations for a Digital Age. Growing teacher capacity is the lever that turns policy into real student opportunity.

The takeaway

Muscatatuck shows what “as real as it gets” looks like when cyber and physical worlds intersect. But building the workforce to operate and defend in that world starts earlier—in high school classrooms—with rigorous courses, trained teachers, and clear pathways into postsecondary programs. If we want more graduates ready for a career in Cybersecurity, the work begins now with cybersecurity courses in more schools, more supported teachers, and intentional bridges to advanced training.

AUTHOR: Scott Pratt, Assistant Director of Technology at Westfield Washington Schools (IN)
CoSN Cybersecurity Committee member

Published on October 30th, 2025

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