Military Calls RIMPAC Exercises Success

The U.S. military says despite its sonar restrictions this time around, the RIMPAC training in Hawaii waters this month was a success.
About 20,000 people from eight countries participated in the RIMPAC war games off Oahu and Kauai.
Yesterday all 35 ships came back to shore, signaling the end of their mission.
Today U.S. leaders say besides working on tactical skills, the sailors and marines learned a lot about communicating with their allies.
"We formed great relationships with our partner nations in this exercise, relationships that are critical to the future security in this region," said Commodore Bruce Donaldson with the Canadian Pacific Fleet.
But not everyone was satisfied with this year's exercises. Environmentalists protested RIMPAC's use of sonar.
Several groups filed a lawsuit and got the military to change the way it uses sonar to avoid hurting marine mammals.
Then, an explosion off Ewa Beach raised controversy because the military never warned the fire department it was going to set off explosives in the area.