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AGATENA (BENARNEWS) – Planned missile tests in Guam have divided residents as the United States continues its unprecedented military buildup in response to geopolitical tensions in the Pacific.
Residents have until Friday to voice their concerns about the environmental impact of the nuclear launches, which are set to begin by the end of this year.
A draft Defense Department environmental assessment concluded that missiles fired from Andersen Air Force Base or Navy ships on the island’s northernmost tip “would not have significant direct, indirect or cumulative impacts on the environment.”
The test comes as Guam prepares to transfer 5,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa by 2028, and is also intended to counter the long-range ballistic missiles developed by China and North Korea, known as the “Guam Killer.”
Last week, the Missile Defense Agency, part of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, held an “open house” at the request of local politicians and communities to protest the lack of transparency and consultation. A small group of protesters held a protest at the event.
“I’m really worried because there are so many people living here. What if one of these tests affects us adversely,” Melissa Savarese, mayor of Dededo village near the air base, told RFA affiliate BenarNews At a July 25 information session.
The environmental assessment said debris was expected to fall within the air base and there was “no reasonable expectation that the (rocket) booster would fall outside this smaller impact zone.”
Still, about 250 property owners around the air base received letters offering them compensation if they evacuated their homes for up to four days during the trial.
“Some residents have talked about building shelters on their properties just for them and their families,” Savarese said. “But can we really afford that?”
Guam already faces a housing crisis, with most residents unable to afford to build homes and the government having no plans to build bunkers.
The island, 1,800 km (1,118 miles) north of Papua New Guinea and 2,200 km east of the Philippines, is home to more than 150,000 residents, including 21,000 military personnel and their families.
“Right now, we are only planning to conduct one test in December as part of an environmental assessment,” said John Beale, director of the Guam Defense System Program at the U.S. Missile Defense Agency. Bernal News.
Up to two test flights a year are planned for the next decade as part of a $1.2 billion missile defense system for Guam, which the MDA listed as a priority in its $10.4 billion 2025 budget proposal.
“Think of it as a deterrent,” Beale said. “If you don’t have defenses, if something decides to threaten the island, (and reinforcements) can’t get there quickly, that’s why we want it on the island.”
Thomas and John Pangrinnan, American brothers and veterans who served in Afghanistan, welcomed the missiles.
“We know what it feels like to lose a strategic location, so we must defend it at all costs,” Thomas Pangrinnan told BenarNews, while his brother John said he would rather take the risk of deploying missiles on Guam.
The December test will be the first time a missile has been fired from the island to intercept another missile and will be used to evaluate the MDA’s interoperability with the Army and Navy.
Guam is no stranger to military testing; the United States conducted atmospheric nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1962, where it was threatened by measurable radioactive fallout.
The missile intercept will take place 88 nautical miles from Guam, and the debris will fall into the ocean and sink to the seafloor, with an environmental assessment stating that this will have “no significant impact on marine living resources.”
Prutehi Litekyan – Save Ritidian, a group representing Guam’s indigenous Chamorro people, held a protest outside the open house against the militarization of their traditional lands and waters.
“It’s really hard to talk about the many negative effects of this plan, from disgust to horror,” spokeswoman Moneaka Flores told reporters. Bernal News.
“The ocean is not an endless resource that we can exploit and pollute, and the same is true for our islands. Our islands are constantly being set up to bear the burden of militarization, making us once again a site of war,” Flores said.
Residents are still awaiting the release of a separate, independent environmental assessment commissioned by the U.S. Secretary of Defense and conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology… PACNEWS
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