Large Bombing Exercise Set for Vieques Island

The Navy this week plans to stage its largest bombing tests on Vieques island since exercises were suspended last year after a fatal accident, according to documents released Monday by Puerto Rico’s Planning Board.

Five ships from the George Washington Battle Group will fire as many as 600 dummy rounds onto the Navy range starting Wednesday, according to a letter written by Rear Adm. J.K. Moran and Navy documents, which the Planning Board distributed.

Aircraft will drop from 550 to 830 dummy bombs, including 120 500-pound and 1,000-pound bombs, during the exercise, which could last two to five days.

Navy officials were surprised by the board’s release of the documents and refused to comment on Vieques operations.

Under a 1983 accord, the Navy provides Puerto Rico’s State Department at least 15 days’ notice before Vieques bombing.

Puerto Rico’s government cannot publicize the Navy notifications. It wasn’t immediately clear why the Planning Board would have been notified.

Puerto Rican Secretary of State Angel Morey told Associated Press he knew nothing about the documents and would investigate.

Board officials did not immediately return telephone calls.

Moran’s letter to the Planning Board letter certified that the training won’t have a significant impact on endangered species or Vieques coastal waters.

The Navy frequently announced many of its live-fire activities on Vieques until two stray bombs killed a civilian security guard on the range in April 1999. The accident unleashed a frenzy of anti-Navy protest.

Dozens of protesters occupied the range until May, when federal officials evicted them.

Days later, Navy aircraft bombed the range and a warship shelled it using dummy munitions, as is now required under an executive order by President Clinton.