How the U.S. military is scrambling to build a floating dock for aid to Gaza

Even before President Joe Biden announced in his State of the Union address the plans for providing aid to Gaza by sea, the Army’s 7th Transportation Brigade and other units were scrambling to pull equipment together.

They received their orders before the speech: Build a floating dock off the Gaza coast to provide food and other assistance to residents of Gaza.

It’s a complex operation, involving as many as 1,000 U.S. troops, and it won’t happen overnight.

Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters it will take weeks for this to come together. Some officials say it will take about two months.

According to Biden, the Israeli government will maintain security at the pier and protect it from any attacks by Hamas terrorists. And there may also be a need for crowd control, in case residents try to storm the pier to get the food.

While officials said they don’t likely need security on the sea route to Israel there will be a requirement for allies and private ships to deliver the aid along the maritime corridor.

It is also unclear who will be unloading the aid at the dock and moving it to shore.

According to defense officials, the 7th Transportation Brigade based at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia is already starting to pull together what’s called the Joint Logistics Over The Shore (JLOTS) equipment and watercraft.

It’s like a huge LEGO system — an array of 40-foot-long pieces of steel that can be locked together to form a pier and causeway. The causeway would be up to 1,800 feet long and two lanes wide.

And in the coming days, U.S. troops will begin loading the equipment onto a large Military Sealift Command vessel. The equipment will include the steel pieces and smaller tug vessels that can help move things into place.

That loading isn’t likely to start until sometime next week, and once done the ship will set off across the Atlantic Ocean with members of the 7th Transportation Brigade aboard. A number of other military units from the U.S. and abroad will also be participating in the mission.

Ryder said the troops will build an offshore pier where large ships can offload food and supplies. Then smaller military vessels will transport that aid from the floating pier to the temporary causeway that will be driven into the ground at the shoreline.

Biden said Thursday that there will be no U.S. forces on the ground in Gaza for the mission, which will likely involve other allies, contractors and aid agencies.