Planned missile tests in Guam are dividing residents as an unprecedented military build-up in the U.S. territory continues in response to geo-political tensions in the Pacific.
Residents have been given until Friday to voice their concerns about the environmental impacts of the launches due to begin by the end of the year.
A draft Department of Defense environmental assessment concludes missile flights from the Andersen Air Force Base, at the northernmost tip of the island, or at sea from Navy ships would have "no significant direct, indirect, or cumulative environmental impacts."
The tests come as the island is preparing for the relocation of 5,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa by 2028 and in response to long-range ballistic missiles developed by China and North Korea, dubbed “Guam Killers”.
An “open house” was hosted last week by the Missile Defense Agency, part of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, at the request of local politicians and the community over lack of transparency and consultation. A small group of protestors picketed the event.
“I'm really concerned because we have a lot of people living here. What if one of the tests backfires on us,” Melissa Savares, mayor of Dededo village next to the airbase, told RFA affiliate BenarNews at the information session on July 25.
The environmental assessment says debris is expected to fall within the air base and “there is no reasonable expectation the [rocket] booster may land outside this smaller impact area”.
About 250 property owners around the airbase have nevertheless received letters offering compensation if they evacuate their homes for up to four days during the tests.
“Some residents talk about building shelters in their properties, just for them and their families to go into,” Savares said. “But can we really afford to do that?”
Guam is already experiencing a housing crisis, building homes is beyond the means of most residents and the government has no plans to build bunkers.
More than 150,000 people live on the island 1,800 kilometers (1,118 miles) north of Papua New Guinea and 2,200 kilometers east of the Philippines, including 21,000 military members and their families.
“Right now, we're only planning to do one test in December as part of our environmental assessment,” John Bier, program director of the Guam Defense System for the MDA, told BenarNews.
Up to two test flights a year are planned over the next decade as part of a US$1.2 billion missile defense system for Guam, which MDA identifies as a priority for its US$10.4 billion budget proposal for 2025.
“Think of it as a deterrent,” Bier said. “If you don't have a defense and if something decides to threaten this island, [and reinforcements] can't get here fast enough, that's why we want to have it here on the island.”
Brothers and veterans of U.S. deployments to Afghanistan, Thomas and John Pangelinan, welcome the missiles.
“We know what it is like to lose a strategic area so we have to defend it at all costs,” Thomas Pangelinan told BenarNews, while his brother John added he would rather take his chances with the missiles on Guam.
December’s test will be the first missile launched from the island to intercept another missile and be used to evaluate the MDA’s interoperability with the Army and Navy.
Guam is no stranger to military experiments, receiving measurable fallout from the U.S. atmospheric nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1962.
The missile intercept will occur more than 88 nautical miles from Guam and debris will fall into the ocean and sink to the ocean seafloor, in what the environmental assessment says would be a “less than significant impact on marine biological resources.”
A protest was held outside the open house, by the group ‘Prutehi Litekyan - Save Ritidian’ representing Guam’s indigenous CHamoru people, who oppose the militarization of their traditional lands and waters.
“It's really hard to pick a place to start – from disgust to horror – to talk about the many negative impacts of this plan,” spokesperson Moneaka Flores told BenarNews.
“The ocean is not an endless resource for us to exploit and contaminate, nor is our island. Our island is constantly being set up to endure the burdens of militarization, building us up to be a site for war once again,” Flores said.
Residents are still awaiting the release of a separate, independent environmental assessment commissioned by the U.S. Secretary of Defense from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.