FORT LEWIS, Wash. (AP) - Fort Lewis neighbors are accustomed to the sound of artillery. They could be hearing sonic booms from a new artillery rocket known as HIMARS.

The Army is conducting an environmental assessment to determine if HIMARS training can take place at the fort and the Yakima Training Center.

Army officials may decide next year whether to conduct a test firing. That would require that the fort harvest about 1,300 trees in a 41-acre acres south of I-5 above the Nisqually River.

Two HIMARS battalions started moving to Fort Lewis last year from Oklahoma and Germany. Each is equipped with 18 of the launchers, which can be carried aboard C-130 cargo planes.

The rockets knock out enemy artillery, air defense sites and troops.