Military exercise in NMI uses missiles in the street to educate community

Over in the NMI, a week-long military training exercise raised some eyebrows after residents saw replica missiles on the street. However, it's part of their goal to educate the community.

They aren't "real." But these missile replicas raised some alarms for residents on Saipan seeing the mammoth objects made up of tin sheets being hauled on the street.  But don't be mistaken, the training is for real-world battles. 

Glenna S. Palacios with the Commonwealth Bureau of Military Affairs, "It is just giving members of our community just to come out and check out the High Vehicle Targets so that they can learn about the capabilities."

The Naval Surface Warfare Center detachment put on the static display for residents to see, touch, and learn amid increased training on Tinian and Saipan. "For this piece they are just going to be doing convoy operations so this is just an effort for our military to refine its communication capabilities. So this is serving as the opposing forces," said Palacios.

As she put it, it'll help them find a target and shut it down.  "I think it s important  for members of our community to know the capabilities of our military and just considering events that are happening within our region, all the threats that we have. It is really important to support military training activities here," she said.

She says training in the NMI will not go forward without a close eye on environmental impact. 

"In this case, there's really no impacts. It is just traversing our public roads. We're hoping it is going to be minimal impact on our traffic but we will have the Dept. of Public Safety conducting the escort," she said.

And there will be more. 

Said Palacios, "We are expecting more exercise coming our way, and whenever they bring their assets forward we want to be able to have this event so that members of our community have an opportunity to just check them out and just learn."