CNN – It’s mid-June, a perfect time to visit the beach to watch porpoises play in the surf or seagulls strut the sand — or you could watch a formation of Marine Corps warplanes darting over the shore at hundreds of miles per hour.

But don’t worry — the United States hasn’t declared war on your family’s beach house. It’s just part of a major Marine Corps exercise called Exercise Mailed Fist (translation: armored fist).

The exercise is designed to test the capability of every type of Marine Corps aircraft, including MV-22 Ospreys and F/A 18 Hornets, as well as some Navy ships and Air Force planes.

The drill will stretch from Quantico Marine Base in northern Virginia to the Navy’s Pinecastle Bombing Range in Florida.

With thousands of Marines and other service members involved, it’s the biggest such drill ever on the U.S. East Coast.

“Exercise Mailed Fist is the first exercise of its specific kind and the largest 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing exercise conducted in recent history,” said Staff Sgt. Roman J. Yurek, Marine Corps spokesman. “In the past, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing units had to deploy to the West Coast to conduct this type of training.”

Mailed Fist was not originally supposed to be one big exercise. But the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing’s commander, Maj. Gen. Jon Davis, decided to combine several smaller drills into one big exercise. Not only do the Marines train closer to home, the Pentagon saves money.

Most of the exercises will take place in the skies above or near Marine bases along the North and South Carolina coast.

From Monday until Friday, vacationers “who are located near the bases … will see an increase in air and ground traffic at various times throughout the week, but there should be minimal impact on activity near beaches other than occasional fly-overs at relatively high altitudes,” the spokesman said.

Reuters reports: U.S. warships and planes helping Japan’s earthquake and tsunami relief efforts have moved away from the country’s Pacific coast temporarily because of low-level radiation from a stricken nuclear power plant, the U.S. Navy said on Monday.

The U.S. Seventh Fleet, in a statement, described the move as precautionary measure.

CARACAS (Reuters) – President Hugo Chavez on Thursday accused the Netherlands of planning “aggression” against Venezuela by allowing U.S. troops access to Dutch islands off the Caribbean coast of the OPEC nation.

“I am accusing the Kingdom of the Netherlands, along with the Yankee empire, of preparing aggression against Venezuela,” Chavez said at a meeting with leftist groups in Copenhagen, which was broadcast on Venezuelan state television.

Chavez, in the Danish capital to attend climate talks, is embroiled in a dispute with neighbor Colombia over a deal to give the United States more access to its military bases. The former soldier says Washington fears his socialist government and is surrounding Venezuela.

Chavez said the self-governing Dutch islands were located in Venezuelan territorial waters. The Dutch Embassy in Caracas was not immediately available for comment.

The United States has long had a military presence on the islands of Curacao and Aruba, with about 250 Air Force crew and ground staff involved in counternarcotics and surveillance operations over the Caribbean.

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The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has started preparations for a massive military drill in the second half of this year that involves as many as 50,000 troops, sources from the Headquarters of General Staff said here Tuesday.

The drill, dubbed Kuayue-2009, will be undertaken by troops from four military command areas, namely, Shenyang, Lanzhou, Jinan and Guangzhou.

This is the first time in the history of the PLA that four divisions from four military command areas are taking part in a drill that involves the deployment of troops across different military command areas, the sources said.

The PLA has seven area command areas. The other three are Beijing, Chengdu and Nanjing.

The Air Force and the Army Aviation troop will also send men and various aircraft to take part in the drill, the sources said.

The drill is aimed at assessing and improving the PLA’s overall combat capacity in the context of information warfare, the sources said.

It will put to tests the PLA’s capacity in command and decision-making, joint operations of land and air troops, operations in complicated electro-magnetic conditions, paratrooper assault operations, simulated battles, and comprehensive exercises by specialist units.