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Navy Proposes Electronic Warfare Training Near Oroville, Wash.

All of the proposed training sites are within military operations areas, where pilots already engage in simulated electronic warfare.

The U.S. Navy wants to set up a new electronic warfare training system in Washington, and has identified two sites near Oroville as possible locations for mobile units.

In all, the Navy would use two mobile sites on the Tonasket Ranger District and six mobile sites on the Colville National Forest in Ferry County, along with 14 mobile sites, one fixed emitter site and one communications transmitter on the Olympic Peninsula.

All of the proposed sites are within military operations areas, where pilots already engage in a variety of training exercises, including simulated electronic warfare, said Navy spokeswoman Liane Nakahara.

Under the proposal, they would begin using the real thing — TV satellite-sized trucks called mobile emitters that would broadcast a signal so that pilots could locate where the signal is coming from, identify the kind of signal, and determine how to defend against it, she said.

“When they go overseas, they may be facing electronic threats from other countries,” Nakahara said. “Part of their training is being able to identify and detect those, and learn how to counter those enemy defenses.”

Nakahara said pilots at Whidbey Island now travel more than 400 miles to Idaho to get this required training. Having a training system in Washington state will save the costs of fuel and travel time, and prevent added time away from home for pilots, she said.

In August, the Navy prepared an environmental assessment for the proposal and it found that the plan would have no significant environmental impact on people or animals in those areas.

Nakahara said the emitters — which are 14 feet above the ground — are pointed toward the sky and essentially broadcast a signal into the air which are similar to the signals used for satellite, some Wi-Fi devices, cordless phones, Bluetooth and weather radar systems. The pilot training does not involve any weapons, she said. Among the 22 mobile sites proposed, as many as three mobile emitter vans would be set up at one time, she said.

Sites under consideration on the Tonasket Ranger District include one on Mt. Hull at a helicopter landing site, and one in the upper Aeneas Valley, up Ogle Creek, said Phil Christy, the district’s environmental coordinator. He said both sites are at least a mile from the nearest home.

Christy said the U.S. Forest Service has not yet begun its assessment. He said the Navy will need a special use permit from the Okanogan-Wenatchee and the Colville national forests to proceed with the plan.

If approved, the mobile transmitters would, at times, be moved onto the site in the morning, and moved out in the evening, and the Navy would ask people to stay out of that area while they were there.

“They have two people in the machine, and one person’s job pretty much is to keep people and animals out,” he said.

According to the U.S. Navy, there is no danger to people or animals unless they were inside a pie-shaped area within about 100 feet of the emitter — which is 14 feet in the air and pointed to the sky — for an extended period of time. As a precaution, Navy crews shut down the emitters if people or animals come within 100 feet of the mobile unit, a news release from the Navy said.

Christy said the Forest Service has notified the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and the Yakama Indian Nation of the Navy’s proposal, but has not decided whether to adopt the Navy’s environmental assessment, or conduct its own.

He said it will probably be two or three years before any proposal is approved, and there will be one or two comment periods during the process.

©2014 The Wenatchee World (Wenatchee, Wash.)