Gaza pier breaks up 4

[3DDave]

The piers belong to the US Navy and US Army. They are adequate for their design purpose, which is not how they are being used. This use is due to complex political requirements for which they are the best tool available.

 

[hokie66]

Not normally a reliable source on engineering matters, but this CNN article gives the big picture on this failed effort.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/06/01/politics/gaza-pier-israel-hamas-war/index.html

 

[GregLocock]

“The JLOTS capability is a great capability and is something I think that can have a lot of utility there, but it was never designed to be able to operate in these high seas,” she said, adding that the state of the sea where JLOTS was anchored is unusual for this time of year but that they are expecting it to calm “in a few days.”

Waiting for the weather
Before committing to building the pier, the Pentagon had briefed the White House that weather could be an impediment. It did a study going back 10 years to look at weather patterns in that part of the Mediterranean and ultimately determined it was a safe enough bet. The storm that came through last week wasn’t expected.

“This was kind of anomalous weather incident,” the first administration official said. “So we knew that it had limitations in terms of the weather but the studies they looked at showed we weren’t likely to encounter them … during the summer period.”

As demonstrated in the graphs from the surf website, SS4 in May is not unexpected.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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[drwebb]

Update- Looks like they may be completing this operation sooner than originally expected: "U.S. officials said the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command were actively discussing an early end to pier operations because weather and some maintenance problems make it far less desirable to reconnect it for just a short time."

https://apnews.com/article/us-gaza-aid-pier-project-dea570c577272f945cdcbfffab0ac34c

 

[fel3]

It sounds like CentCom did a thorough pier review.

============
"Is it the only lesson of history that mankind is unteachable?"
--Winston S. Churchill

 

[Heaviside1925]

fel3 It took the second read before I saw it. May I speak for others with a collective "groan". Good one

 

[SnTMan]

Our (borrowed) tax dollars at work

The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand

 

[lexpatrie]

I wouldn't call it "predictable" but some risk being understood that it was only going to be a temporary pier, with a wide variance in the viable timeline to use it, and the go ahead to achieve at least partial mission success. 30%? 40%? 80%?

Just because there were big waves last year doesn't mean there will be this year. One could attempt some kind of long term forecast as a predicate to a go - no go decision, but it doesn't guarantee success or failure. If we had any meteorologists to speak to the state of the art, that would be something.

 

[3DDave]

The pier was a solution devised for sheltered harbors, protected from ocean waves.

I think it delivered less than 1% of the need to shore and that material has mostly been pinned down by divisions among a number of groups in Gaza and by Israeli refusal to make a good faith attempt.

The main thing it showed is that all the people with the guns are using the civilian Palestinians as human pawns and not recognizing that both sides are using the suffering of the civilians for gratification should be enough to cut off both sides from any further support.

 

[GregLocock]

There were big waves in May every year for the last 3 years. It took me less than 10 minutes to find that out. They were SS4. This pier can handle SS2. The optics of getting food ashore without US personnel on shore overrode 10 minutes of research and cost 1/3 billion dollars.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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