RAVENNA, Ohio - People who live nearby or operate businesses near Camp James A. Garfield Joint Military Training Center may notice an increase in blast noise from the area this week.

Base officials say high explosives will be used by the Ohio Army National Guard’s 147th Regiment during training exercises Wednesday and Thursday, March 24-25.

The training is designed for soldiers taking a combat engineer course as part of military readiness.

The explosives used to simulate realistic battle conditions and may be heard farther away than what occurs during normal operations.

There will be intermittent explosions and gunfire at the facility during the annual training season, which runs through September.

The 21,000-acre Camp James A. Garfield Joint Military Training Center is an Ohio Army National Guard training site in Portage and Trumbull counties with small arms weapons ranges and permanent facilities to support individual and collective training events for both weekend and annual training.

The installation is undergoing improvements to become a world-class training center for Army and other Department of Defense units in the Midwestern U.S.

Among the recent improvements are a Fire and Movement Range and a new Automated Record Fire Range.

The camp also features Training Aids, Devices, Simulators and Simulations, which is state-of-the-art digital training equipment that allows for realistic combat training without the logistic challenges of live-fire ranges.