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US Navy sued over live-fire training plan in Pacific

Caleb Jones (Associated Press)
Honolulu, United States
Wed, July 27, 2016

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US Navy sued over live-fire training plan in Pacific Japan Air Self-Defense Force airmen wave at residents of Pagan island in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands after dropping a package to the islanders as part of Operation Christmas Drop, Dec. 9, 2015. (US Air Force via AP/Staff Sgt. Benjamin Gonsier)

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ommunity members and an environmental group are suing the US Navy over a plan to turn two Pacific islands into live-fire testing ranges.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Saipan on Wednesday.

The plan proposes using the islands of Tinian and Pagan in the Northern Marianas for live-fire military war games.

Attorneys representing the complainants said in a news release that training would prevent Pagan's native people from returning to their home island, which was evacuated in 1981 after a volcanic eruption, and would disrupt local communities on Tinian.

The lawsuit says the National Environmental Policy Act requires the military to consider all of the effects the relocation and training of their forces would have, but that the Navy has violated that law.

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