Fort Bragg cuts power to base in unannounced exercise

April 25 (UPI) -- Officials at the Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina cut power to thousands of residents overnight as part of an unannounced exercise to prepare for cyberattacks, the military installation said Thursday.

The training exercise at Fort Bragg, which is home to more than 50,000 active duty personnel and their families in central North Carolina, began around 10 p.m. Wednesday. In a Facebook post around 11 a.m., the military base said it would be back to normal operating status within 3 hours to 5 hours.

"Fort Bragg has to train for any possible threats to the installation in order to remain mission capable," the post said. "This exercise was not announced in order to replicate likely real-world reactions by everyone directly associated with the installation."

The base said the exercise was meant to identify vulnerabilities in security and deployment posture.

Army officials initially offered no explanation for the early-morning power outages, which affected residences, businesses, traffic signals and restaurants. The Womack Army Medical Center said it was operating on reduced capacity and canceled some appointments at the facility.