October 10th, In 2018, Tyndall Air Force Base in the Gulf of Mexico, a pillar of American air superiority, came under air attack. Hurricane Michael was initially discovered as a Category 2 storm off the coast of Florida, but unexpectedly grew to a Category 5. Sustained winds of 155 miles per hour blew into the base, blowing away utility poles, flipping over F-22s, and destroying more than 200 buildings in total. . The only saving grace is that despite sitting on a peninsula, Tyndall was spared from flooding. Michael’s 9 to 14 foot storm surge flooded other parts of Florida. Tyndall’s main defense was luck.
The $5 billion disaster at Tyndall is one of a growing number of extreme weather events that have convinced the Pentagon that it needs new ideas to protect the 1,700 coastal bases it is responsible for around the world. It’s just one thing. As Hurricanes Helen and Milton demonstrated, coastal communities face multiple threats from climate change, and the Department of Defense is no exception. Rising seas are chewing up the coast. The stronger the storm, the more likely your land will be flooded.
In response, Tyndall will later this month test a new way to protect coastlines from intensifying waves and storm surges: a prototype artificial reef designed by a team led by Rutgers University scientists. The 50-meter-wide array consists of three chevron-shaped structures, each weighing approximately 46,000 pounds. full of energy According to tests, there are no waves. But this isn’t your grandpa’s sea wall. The island was specifically designed to be home to oysters, nature’s most effective wave breakers.
Researchers believe that if they can optimize these organisms in conjunction with new man-made structures installed in the ocean, the resulting barriers could steal 90 percent of the energy from waves. David Bushek, director of Rutgers University’s Haskin Shellfish Research Institute, is adamant that he doesn’t want a megastorm to show what his team’s forces are made of. But he’s not do not have I hope for one. “Models are always imperfect. They’re always a replica of something,” he says. “They’re not real.”
The project is one of three under development under a $67.6 million program launched by the U.S. government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The effort, jokingly called “Refence,” is a Pentagon effort to test whether “hybrid” reefs, which combine man-made structures with oysters and corals, can perform as well as good old sea walls. Darpa will select three research teams in 2022, all led by U.S. universities. After two years of intensive research and development, their prototype is beginning to be put into practical use, with Rutgers in the lead.
Currently, the Department of Defense protects coastal assets by hardening them in the same way as civilians. Common approaches include protecting beaches with retaining walls or long lines of heavy objects such as rocks or concrete blocks. However, hardscape construction comes with tradeoffs. They deflect wave energy rather than absorbing it, so protecting your own coastline means exposing someone else’s coastline. They are also static. As sea levels rise and storms become stronger, water has an easier time overcoming these structures. This leads to faster wear and tear and the need for ongoing expensive repairs.
