FBI reveals a fake town built to train cyber investigators

The FBI has revealed a large secret training complex in Huntsville, Alabama, designed to prepare agents for cyber investigations. The indoor facility, which opened last year and spans about 22,000 square feet, is built to look like an entire town and was shown publicly on Wednesday, June 10, 2026.

Inside the range are realistic structures such as a grocery store, hotel, courthouse, gas station, fully furnished houses, a power company, an arcade and a data center running 200 servers. Each area is connected to working systems, networks and devices meant to behave like real-world infrastructure.

The FBI said the “technical training environment” is intended to train agents, analysts and forensic specialists for cases that increasingly involve digital evidence. More than 1,400 trainees have already used the site, including FBI personnel and partners from other agencies.

FBI cyber range director Dave Beichboard said, “This is as close to reality as you can get before people go into the field. We try to keep the scenarios as realistic as possible, and everything is based on past cases.” In April, one exercise simulated a ransomware attack that shut down a hospital network, alongside a drill to extract an electric vehicle control unit that could help reconstruct the car’s location and use.