Fort Bragg blackout was part of planned test, post official says

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (WTVD) -- Fort Bragg started Thursday off in the dark in an effort to test its own infrastructure weaknesses and shortcomings.

The military post located near Fayetteville dealt with a power outage Thursday morning. However, the outage was apparently part of an unannounced test.

In a statement, Fort Bragg said the blackout was not announced "in order to replicate likely real-world reactions."

Fort Bragg posted to Facebook about the blackouts at 4:30 a.m. That post, perhaps as part of the exercise, said nothing about the blackouts being planned.

Fort Bragg's full statement about the exercise (which was released shortly after 11 a.m.) can be read below:

"Fort Bragg has been conducting an exercise to identify shortcomings in our infrastructure, operations and security by cutting power throughout the installation. Fort Bragg has to train for any possible threats to the installation in order to remain mission capable. This exercise was not announced in order to replicate likely real-world reactions by everyone directly associated with the installation. In today's world, cyber-attacks are very likely. This exercise is exactly what we needed to do to identify our vulnerabilities and work to improve our security and deployment posture.
We also have a deployment exercise going on at the exact same time and we can demonstrate that we can still deploy and operate in the event of efforts to disrupt, delay, and deny our forces. Within the next 3-5 hours, we'll be back to normal operating status.
American States Utility Services is asking all water users to adhere to mandatory water restrictions
I thank all of you for your patience and feedback. Continue to be vigilant and stay safe. Although we use social media as a tool for communicating, your commands are still a reliable source of information. Fort Bragg, will be better tomorrow and the foreseeable future because of this exercise."