PORT HADLOCK — Residents in East Jefferson County as well as North Kitsap County may have noticed an increase in military vehicles on the roads in the last week.
Those vehicles are part of the U.S. Navy’s role in TURBO CADS 2011, an exercise conducted by the United States Transportation Command through June 20.
Containers holding munitions have been arriving in Bangor by train since Monday, June 6, and trucked 35 miles by military vehicle to Indian Island.
At Indian Island, they will be loaded on the MV American Tern, Navy Region Northwest Public Affairs J. Overton said.
The containers hold conventional, non-nuclear, munitions that are unarmed and do not have fuses, Overton said.
“They’re not ready to go off,” Overton said.
There are multiple safety measures involved in the transportation of those munitions, he said.
Once loaded, the American Tern will transport those munitions to forward-deployed military units in Guam, Korea and Japan.
TURBO CADS 2011 covers the entire North Pacific, from the United States to East Asia, and is designed to test the military’s Containerized Ammunition Distribution System (CADS), according to a prepared statement from the Navy.
CADS employs a combined military and commercial transportation infrastructure to move conventional munitions from depots around the United States to using rail, truck and sealift, the Navy said.
The exercise is designed to test the Department of Defense’s ability to transport munitions in 20-foot commercial containers, using commercial vessels.
Planning for the exercise began in July 2010, the Navy said, adding it is not a part of any other current military operation.
Regularly-scheduled logistics exercises strengthen the military’s ability to respond to real-world crises overseas, the Navy said.
Additionally, it provides excellent real-world training for Navy components in the Pacific Northwest and allows the Navy in the Northwest region to further strengthen its working relationship with the private sector.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
