MARION, Ark. - An international security company is developing a $12 million, state-of-the-art military, security and law enforcement training center near Marion - creating about 60 new jobs by year's end and the potential for hundreds of temporary jobs.

The urban-combat training center, built by The Olive Security Group, a British firm, will include a two-mile driving range, a tactics training area, and a replica of a Middle Eastern or North African urban area, all on more than 700 acres about 15 miles from Memphis.

Olive is building the facility on the site of the former 16-acre Tactical Explosive Entry School (TEES), which it acquired last fall and at which it has begun hosting several courses a week.

Now dubbed Olive Security Training Center, its magnitude and gamut of resources will be unique among companies that offer such training, said a special forces training expert, retired Army general Dick Powell of Pennsylvania.

The site has a facility for mechanical, thermal, ballistic and explosive entries practice, and a tactical area with eight shooting ranges, alarmed bunkers, seven classrooms, storage areas, and 8,000-square-foot and 4,000-square-foot covered shoot houses. Plans also include a 1,000-meter sniper range.

Also completed is the driving track for pursuit skills, advanced vehicle control and ambushed-driver training. It's built to withstand speeds of around 100 mph and live fire or explosives attacks on vehicles.

Olive will also build on-site lodging and dining facilities by the end of the year.

Construction of the facility's Military Operation in Urban Terrain site, for urban-combat training, should begin in April.

It will be a nine-block replica of a typical urban area in the Middle East, North Africa and South America. It will have a market area traffic circle, multistory adobe-style buildings in close quarters, and homes surrounded by walls.

Most training facilities still use European or generic architecture with widely spaced buildings, said Michael Smith, senior vice president of business development for Olive Group North America. "It's not indicative of areas of operation that the military and field law enforcement are finding themselves operating in today," he said.

Olive's revenue comes from its training courses and government contracts. The company chose the Crittenden County site because of its remote location near a major metropolitan area.

Olive's local office is in Nesbit, Miss. Pickering Firm and Linkous Construction firms of Memphis are building the facility.