A UNITED STATES military exercise that could shape the tactics in any war against Iraq begins today at the sprawling al-Sayliyah army camp in the desert outside Doha, the capital of Qatar.

This, however, is no conventional military exercise.There will be no tank formations churning up the desert, no artillery batteries pounding the horizon, no helicopter gunships overhead, and no sweating soldiers in sand dunes.

Instead the participants, “headquarters staff from US Central Command (Centcom)”, are more likely to be found hunched over computer consoles and staring at video screens for the duration of the “Internal Look” exercise.

General Tommy Franks, the commander of Centcom, and about 600 of his staff will spend between a week and ten days in al-Sayliyah playing a sophisticated virtual war game that will involve several thousand US soldiers in command centres spanning all 25 countries within Centcom’s area of operations, from North Africa to East Asia. They would be joined by about 400 British troops in Qatar and another 400 from bases in Britain, America and the Gulf, diplomatic sources said.

“What this exercise is going to do is test and exercise our ability to communicate on the modern battlefield,” a senior Centcom official said. “This exercise is going to be a very complex computer-based and assisted exercise that will not involve combat forces.” General Franks led some 200 of his staff through a warm-up on Saturday.

Three previous “Internal Look” exercises have been held since 1990, but this is the first to be conducted outside America. The scenario is classified, but there are no prizes for guessing which country is likely to be the focus.

Tensions with Iraq remain high and America has been steadily building up its forces in the Gulf region for months. Some 10,000 American troops are conducting exercises in Kuwait near the border with southern Iraq. About 4,000 US forces are in Qatar, most of them at al-Sayliyah and at the £930 million state-of-the-art al-Udeid airbase, five minutes further down the dusty highway.

The 262-acre al-Sayliyah base was constructed at a cost of more than £73 million and is Centcom’s largest pre-positioning facility outside America. Its 27 temperature-controlled warehouses can house equipment for an armoured division of 11,000 soldiers. The facility holds hundreds of tanks and armoured fighting vehicles, allowing US forces to cut the speed of deployment from four weeks “as at the time of the 1991 Gulf War” to just four days.

A large American flag flutters in the hot breeze beside the Qatari national flag providing a splash of colour amid the drab buildings. The base is protected by a 2.5-mile mesh fence interspersed with watch towers. The perimeter fence is reinforced by twin steel cables designed to stop lorries from breaking through. A waist-high barricade of rocks provides a secondary line of defence. Heavily armed American private security guards man the entrance to the base while other uniformed soldiers scrutinise the perimeter fence through binoculars.

Hidden among buildings are new portable headquarters that are being tested as part of the exercise. The mobile command centre was transported from America to Qatar last month and assembled at al-Sayliyah for “Internal Look”. Comprising several modular units and capable of withstanding extreme heat and cold, the centre is designed to be flown and assembled anywhere in the Centcom area of operations.

Pentagon officials have indicated that some senior staff involved in the exercise could remain in Qatar once it ends, instead of returning to Centcom’s headquarters in Tampa, Florida. The portable headquarters is also expected to stay in Qatar, heightening speculation that the tiny oil and gas-rich Gulf state could play a pivotal role in a possible invasion of Iraq.

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