About 150 Schofield Barracks soldiers are scheduled to train today and a similar number tomorrow in Makua Valley — firing blanks instead of live ammunition — as they prepare for a summer deployment to Iraq.

The 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry soldiers will arrive by Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters this morning to practice air assaults, officials said.

A federal judge last week rejected the Army's bid to resume live-fire training in the 4,190-acre Wai'anae Coast valley.

U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway characterized the Army's warnings that casualties will increase without live-fire training as "vehement pronouncements and speculation."

She said the Army has alternative training sites and Army officials have not shown that the training will be adequate only if performed in the valley with live ammunition.

Under a 2001 court settlement, the Army was able to resume limited live-fire exercises for three years. The Army also agreed it would end the live-fire training after three years if an environmental impact statement had not been completed.

Although the study was not completed, the Army asked that the live-fire training be allowed for the troops scheduled to deploy to Iraq. The Army's last live-fire training was in the summer of 2004.

The judge said the Army must abide by federal laws requiring completion of the study on the impact of the exercises on endangered species and Hawaiian cultural sites before troops can resume training there with live ammunition.