Annolies Truman, Perth
Beginning August 6 residents of Lancelin, a seaside town 123 kilometres north of Perth, have been subjected to the effects of US military exercises conducted in the Lancelin Defence Training Area (DTA). US Navy pilots conducted non-firing passes and there were helicopter flights daily on August 6-9 from the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier.
On August 10, residents were jolted awake at 6am by unscheduled Australian Navy ship-to-shore bombing. The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has promised there will be an inquiry into why this occurred.
Residents were informed by letter that from August 14, US Navy pilots would train 13 hours a day, from 9am to 10pm, until August 19, dropping bombs in the Lancelin DTA.
Lancelin anti-bombing range activist Anne Snow told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly that the aircraft noise was terrible. "We had helicopters skimming over our homes and could see armed soldiers looking down at us through open doors." She said that people's homes were "just seconds away" from the target areas for "laser guided bombs — so-called smart bombs that seem to have so many 'accidents'".
The Lancelin DTA is 26,000 hectares, but Snow said the defence department wants to expand the training area. The bombing range has been used by the ADF since the 1960s.
In January 2003, the USS Abraham Lincoln used the range for air-to-ground bombing practice. "Over the next two years, we had a carrier every six months, culminating in live air-to-ground bombing in late 2004", Snow said.