CHICOPEE, Mass. - A joint exercise between the city of Chicopee and Westover Air Reserve Base Tuesday looked at ways the community can better respond to catastrophic incidents like an electromagnetic pulse attack.

A nuclear weapon if detonated by the coastline of the commonwealth would impact power grids, utilities, traffic lights and communication systems throughout the region. 

Westover Air Reserve Base says adversaries from foreign countries have been looking for ways to attack the country through an EMP which would make it challenging for their defense force to communicate and deploy.

The base said an attack of that caliber would also impact the day to day lives of residents so the goal of the collaboration with city resources like the Chicopee Fire and Police Departments is to make sure everyone would be on the same page with moving forward.

"People just trying to get to work," said Westover Air Reserve Base Colonel Greg Buchanan. "People trying to keep food cold in their refrigerators. What happens to hospitals? What would happen to those surgeries in those hospitals? What would happen to those medical records in those hospitals? It would cause a lot of societal chaos."

Westover said the airbase itself has hundreds of airmen along with several aircrafts that serve the country.

They hope to hold more joint exercises with the Chicopee public safety complex to continue improving their protective services.