First responder teams eye military urban trainers.

Threats of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil are prompting law enforcement agencies and first responders to turn to military-grade training facilities.

Law enforcement officials are requesting training for urban combat so that units can better respond to events such as school shootings. The April massacre at Virginia Tech proved that there is a need for more effective response capabilities, officials said.

"That's certainly more militaristic than the American public has had in mind for the last few decades," said Tim Shook, director of marketing for General Dynamics Information Technology's homeland security and law enforcement division.

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Once the exclusive domain of the Pentagon's forces, instrumented urban warfare trainers are attracting the attention of civilian customers, including state and local law enforcement agencies, fire and rescue crews.

Housed inside shipping containers, mobile tactical trainers provide targets, sounds, smells and other special effects to produce realistic scenarios for trainees. Cameras and microphones track and record teams as they proceed through the training.

The trainers can be configured to replicate bar rooms, hotel foyers and other civilian locales, said Shook, a bomb technician and retired agent for the North Carolina Bureau of Investigation. They can reproduce the distinctive smells encountered by first responders, such as those associated with methamphetamine labs.

First responder agencies, unlike the Defense Department, do not have a large treasure chest of funds to spend on high-end training technologies. General Dynamics has initiated a program to help agencies write requests for grants and will also allow agencies to rent its system, said Fred Pickens, senior director for business development.