A military floating pier ordered by then-President Joseph R. Biden to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip was functional for barely 20 days before the effort was scrubbed following the death of a servicemember, dozens of injuries and the damage or loss of tens of millions of dollars worth of crucial equipment battered by heavy storms.
President Biden handed the doomed mission to Defense Department officials during his 2024 State of the Union address.
The military’s floating piers, known as JLOTS, or joint logistics over-the-shore, are intended to enable the delivery of cargo from ship to shore using special watercraft and other equipment in areas where fixed-port facilities are not available.
But the military planners behind Operation Neptune Solace, the Department of Defense Inspector General said in its scathing report released this week, failed to consider mission-specific requirements, including beach and sea conditions.
Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the GOP chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the IG report confirms the initial criticism last year of the JLOTS mission.
“Biden’s Gaza pier was an ill-conceived, ineffective, and wasteful boondoggle that put American troops at risk and failed to deliver any meaningful assistance to civilians in Gaza,” Sen. Wicker said in a statement. “It’s clear the Biden administration’s decision to build the pier was driven by political calculations instead of prudent planning.”
The IG report says the Army and Navy slashed resources between 2014-2024 for the few remaining JLOTS-capable units, reducing maintenance and training resources necessary for them to meet mission-capable and manning standards for future operations.
They identified 11 instances when officials from the Army, Navy, or U.S. Transportation Command identified a lack of sufficient planning for potential future JLOTS operations.
The Biden administration claimed that the mission would result in the delivery of provisions sufficient to feed at least 1.5 million Palestinians over three months. The “Gaza Pier” ultimately delivered food aid for about 450,000 Palestinians before it was decommissioned.
“The [Defense Department] experienced several challenges during Operation Neptune Solace and while performing JLOTS exercises,” said Deputy Inspector General Michael Roark. “The DoD must improve and learn from these previous deployments and exercises to meet the demands of future JLOTS missions.”
