Environmentalists are pretty upset over an American warplane dropping bombs on the Great Barrier Reef during a military exercise.  Queensland Greens Senator Larissa Waters is asking, “Have we gone completely mad?”

The bombs were not armed, and therefore there was no explosion.  The US 7th Fleet claims its pilots aimed for a deep channel away from shipping.  There were four bombs dumped there, 226 Kilograms each.

It went down this way because two US AV-8B Harrier jets taking part in the Talisman Sabre joint military exercise at Shoalwater Bay in central Queensland were supposed to have dropped the bombs on Townshend Island.  But the mission was aborted because of “hazards” in the area.  The Harriers apparently couldn’t land with low fuel and a full payload.

Environmentalists say this should not have taken place on the Great Barrier Reef in the first place.

“I think it's outrageous that we're letting the US military drop bombs on the World Heritage Great Barrier Reef,” said Greens Senator Larissa Waters.

“I mean have we gone completely mad?  Is this how we look after our World Heritage area now? Letting a foreign power drop bombs on it?”