Re: Dhows vs. Copters and Diego Garcia -
For the South side of Sumarta, it appears the quake and Tsunami have changed the coast near the shore line, making it much shallower than before, plus fill with debris. Even shallow draft vessels would have a hard time getting close to shore.
This would also eliminate the use of landing craft or lighters.
Maybe a zodiac boat, but they can't carry much.
The area near the shore appears to be covered with more debris, to as much as a 1/2 mile inland.
That debris means even if you can to shore, there's a barrier you need to cross to get to survivors.
The debris field might even be a problem for hovercraft.
So using helicopters to fly over all this junk will be neccessary until some kind of channel & port can be dredged out.
The bigger trucks on US highways pull trailers rated at 45,000 to 60,000 pounds. So this big helicopter lift is about 1/2 a semi-truck load, or equivalent to 1.5 standard 40 foot ocean shipping containers.
If they can clear spaces for fixed wing aircraft, that might be useful...
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Diego Garcia is 2450 miles away from Jakarta - closer than some places, but not really close. Singapore is probably much better.
Diego Garcia is much smaller than I thought. It has one cause way to load/unload ships. The prepositioned ships seem to be pre-loaded with military equipment and they just sit there, waiting to go to Kuwait or wherever.
There don't appear to be any large warehouses or cranes or port facilities. Just a crowded airbase and some weapons depots.
Heck, the golf course is only 9 holes - that means it's a really small island.
Most of the ships seem to be RO-ROs, roll on / roll off.
These need to dock in slip next to a tarmac or road which can support heavy vehicles.
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