Showing posts with label Munitions in Community Backyard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Munitions in Community Backyard. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Missile Town - MOTSU Provides Important Clues About Planned Army West Loch Munitions Storage Complex

   Compiled History by Ewa Historian John Bond

MOTSU Provides Important Clues About Planned 

Army West Loch Munitions Storage Complex

Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point (MOTSU) is one of the largest military terminals in the world. In 2018 the long secretive and mostly classified facility used a $270,000 Department of Defense grant with $30,000 local matching funds for a Joint Land Use Study (JLUS) designed to improve military and community collaboration. The 209-page study acknowledges MOTSU can improve its communication efforts with the public and outlines ways municipal partners can consider the military’s mission while managing the NC region’s explosive growth. (i.e. like Ewa West Oahu)

https://www.ourstate.com/military-ocean-terminal-sunny-point/


Historic photo shows MOTSU port operations which still depends on 80% rail service. Freight rail is one particular area that the US excels at and areas like NC are well served.

This is where the mighty ships come in to load or unload their cargo of weapons: rockets, missiles, howitzers, grenades, projectiles, pyrotechnics. The Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point (MOTSU), run by the U.S. Army, is the nation’s largest ocean terminal for military munitions. “Wherever we’re fighting is probably where we’re sending stuff, or they’re sending stuff back to us,” says Steve Kerr, the deputy to the commander at MOTSU. (West Loch serves and is being greatly expanded for a similar purpose for Indo-Pacific military operations.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Ocean_Terminal_Sunny_Point

A catastrophe served as the genesis for MOTSU. On July 17, 1944, military munitions exploded at Port Chicago near San Francisco. The fireball soared nearly two miles into the sky and port was flattened, every building in the neighboring town was damaged, and the rumble was felt as far away as Nevada. 

NOTE: MOTSU doesn't mention the 1944 West Loch explosion because it was kept SECRET until the early 1960's. MOTSU was established in 1955. 

This begs the question that too much secrecy means the wider MOTSU safety arc (ESQD) confidentiality apparently didn't cause the Navy West Loch Ammunition Depot to expand its safety arc (ESQD) when they could have in the 1960's while the Ewa Plain was still mostly sugar cane fields. 

The MOTSU Blast Zone Arc and criteria to determine it revealed 

to the local public for the first time in 2017-2018

The so-called “blast zone” arc is confined to land owned outright by the federal government, inside the “buffer zone” on Carolina and Kure Beaches. This arc represents the minimum distance that can be safely maintained between an explosive site and habitable building.

Last year, after initiating the JLUS, the military terminal shared the radius of its previously undisclosed blast safety arcs. https://capefearcog.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/November-Policy-Committee_web.pdf

Local news coverage:  https://portcitydaily.com/local-news/2019/07/14/what-motsu-wants-u-s-army-presents-53-recommendations-for-local-governments/

Note: IBD radius is approximately 3.5 miles and the K88 Distance radius is approximately 6 miles.

Public community meetings revealed that at roughly twice the size of the Inhabited Building Distance (IBD), the K88 quantity-distance arc includes areas with a high probability of glass breakage in the event of a terminal explosion. According to its former commander, Col. Marc Mueller, the K88 has remained unchanged for MOTSU, but the distance was new to the public when the military released it in 2018. There is also criteria for community emergency evacuations for initial response to an incident involving ammunition/explosives. Distance applies to any given facility – docks were used as an example.

MOTSU Provides Important Clues About Planned Army West Loch Munitions Storage Complex

Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point (MOTSU) is one of the largest military terminals in the world. In 2018 the long secretive and mostly classified facility used a $270,000 Department of Defense grant with $30,000 local matching funds for a Joint Land Use Study (JLUS) designed to improve military and community collaboration. The 209-page study acknowledges MOTSU can improve its communication efforts with the public and outlines ways municipal partners can consider the military’s mission while managing the NC region’s explosive growth. (i.e. like Ewa West Oahu)

MOTSU Blast Safety Arcs (ESQD) Are More Than DOUBLE 

That Of Old West Loch Arc Radius Of 1.4 Miles

The K88 arc ESQD of approximately 2.8 miles is an area where there is “enhanced” glass breakage if there was a 1,000,000 kg (2,204622.62 pounds) Hazard Division 1.1  Explosive event in Ewa West Oahu.


If we use the value of 5,000,000 pounds of TNT (2267961.85 kg, 2500 tons) the blast zone arc VBD Vulnerable Building Distance is then extended out to parts of Kapolei, Hickam, Ford Island, Leeward Community College, Royal Kunia, all of Haseko and likely also affect Makakilo. Note how large the green PTRD Public Traffic Route Distance is. The Ewa community in yellow would suffer significant damage.

NavFac says they use NAVSEA OP 5Volume 1  which is loaded with references to other DoD manuals but does provide some specifics:

"The ESQD arcs for ships and vessels carrying cargo ammunition are based on the total NEW of cargo ammunition aboard plus the total NEW of the ammunition handled or staged."

"The ESQD for FBM submarines is based on the total quantity of missiles on the submarine if a hatch is open for any operation directly related to a missile.   

 (1) If the hatches on a fleet ballistic missile (FBM) submarine are opened for any 

operation related directly to the missile (i.e., loading or maintenance), the total NEW of all missiles aboard must be applied to the pier NEW limit. (2) AE stowed outside of designated ship's magazines, launchers, or ready service lockers will be considered cargo ammunition, --etc"  

It is very important to understand that placing explosives in covered earth magazines DOES NOT mean they are much safer. The fact is that all munitions are staged to be transported. When in the transit stage, forklift, dolly, truck, to pier crane, ship etc. is when the small accidents become big DISASTERS. 

Using another example from MOTSU, a 1,000,000 blast zone radius for Vulnerable Building Distance (VBD) would be 4440 meters or 2.76 miles. This means Waipahu, Ewa west of Kualaka’i Parkway (AKA North South Road) Ewa Beach- Ocean Pointe (Haseko) Ewa Gentry – Ewa Villages, and over to Iroquois Point. The Inhabited Building Distance (IBD) is 2220M or 1.4 miles.  This is very interesting as it is exactly the same distance as shown in the historic Building 1 map of “Whisky” wharf W 1-2-3, which shows an ESQD (Explosives Safety Quantity Distance) arrow pointing southwest of 7405 feet (1.4 miles.) This strongly suggests that the original West Loch explosive blast arc was based upon the same Hazard Division 1.1 Explosives input of 1,000,000 kg (2,204622.62 pounds, 1102.3 tons) of TNT munitions.



I know DoD has their own vendor software they use to calculate explosive arcs, requiring Arc GIS, however I invite you to try out the very easy to use and free software to determine ESQD - (Explosives Safety Quantity Distance) - United Nations ITAG  (International Technical Ammunitions Guideline) which scales to net explosives input: https://www.un.org/disarmament/un-saferguard/map/

for Pearl Harbor West Loch use these coordinates: 

Latitude: 21.345589355722055 

Longitude: -158.01463734402498  

The blast arcs in my testimony are using Army DoD MOTSU criteria

Also look at the well reported meetings with the Cape Fear community. Last year, after initiating the JLUS, the military terminal shared the radius of its previously undisclosed blast safety arcs. 

https://capefearcog.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/November-Policy-Committee_web.pdf

The Army West Loch munitions facility plans to bring in huge ammunition ships. That is buried in the bottom of their EA.

Local North Carolina news coverage about MOTSU: 

https://portcitydaily.com/local-news/2019/07/14/what-motsu-wants-u-s-army-presents-53-recommendations-for-local-governments/

Public community meetings revealed that at roughly twice the size of the Inhabited Building Distance (IBD), the K88 quantity-distance arc includes areas with a high probability of glass breakage in the event of a terminal explosion. According to its former commander, Col. Marc Mueller, the K88 has remained unchanged for MOTSU, but the distance was new to the public when the military released it in 2018.  

 Cape Fear: Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point Joint Land Use Study

https://capefearcog.org/sunnypoint/

See: GENERAL DOCUMENTS

This is the type of study that should be done in Hawaii if the City, State and Federal government are actually concerned about the health, safety and welfare of the local West Oahu communities.

·  COL Mueller's presentation (PDF)

JLUS Overview (PDF)

JLUS Executive Summary (PDF)
JLUS Final Document (PDF)
JLUS Data Management Plan and Technical Addendum (PDF)
JLUS Public Participation Plan (PDF)

John Bond Ewa historian

Ewa's Big Ammo Dump - Munitions Being Transferred to West Loch and Large New Missile Magazines Being Built by Army and Navy

 Compiled History by Ewa Historian John Bond

Lualualei: Why Are Munitions Being Transferred to 

West Loch and Large New Missile Magazines 

Being Built by Army and Navy?

Lualualei Naval Magazine


This is Lualualei in leeward Oahu. This naval magazine has gradually been shut down and the last tenant is the US Army which has been keeping its munitions there. Now the army plans to remove all remaining munitions over to a new Army Munitions Complex directly next to the communities of West Loch, Ewa by Gentry, Ewa Villages and Ewa Beach.

The Army is also building many new Type D missile magazines for new missiles and long range artillery shells at West Loch. The Navy is also building new Type D missile magazines at West Loch. There are major new weapons being developed largely in anticipation of the coming war with China. China’s military is making increasingly aggressive military moves in the Pacific with Guam and Hawaii in their bomb sites. The US Military is countering this with a rapid buildup of advanced new missiles to hit ship and island targets in the Pacific.

Cost of Compliance on Graduate School of Business & Public Policy Thesis, December 2017, Naval Postgraduate School, Munitions Consolidation from Lualualei to West Loch

https://calhoun.nps.edu/handle/10945/58904

In 1967, the Naval Ordnance Safety and Security Activity (NOSSA) came out with more restrictive safety standards mandating that the distance between each magazine must be greater than what is currently installed at West Loch (NAVSEA, 2017). Due to the lack of permissible net explosive weight (NEW) allowed per the NOSSA standards, Navy Munitions Command has been using several magazines in Lualualei to store smaller-sized ordnance.

The 1995 Hawaii Military Land Use Master Plan (HMLUMP) recognized the importance of Hawaii’s strategic location as a “bridge to Asia” and, as a result, recommended the release of the Lualualei Annex due to its aging magazines and its consolidation with West Loch pending construction of new facilities.

The 2002 Commander, Navy Region Hawaii (CNRH) Ordnance Facilities Plan, proposed a significant investment in new ordnance infrastructure for new magazines near West Loch. Additionally, in 2003, PACFLT identified that only four out of 299 magazines in Hawaii are capable of storing modern missiles for naval destroyers and submarines.

The two courses of action according to the Navy’s analysis are as follows: Option 1. Navy builds new magazines, Army builds new magazines, and both consolidate in West Loch in accordance with NOSSA standards. Option 2. Current magazines at Lualualei are upgraded to NOSSA standards and current operations remain the same for Navy and Army. Option 1 may sound reasonable but does not take in account the required ESQD – safety zone, according to information made available to the public in 2018 by the Army MOTSU presentations. The Army munitions complex will be just .5 (1/2 mile) from the nearby communities.

Rising tensions in the Pacific with China, North Korea, and Russia could lead to combat operations in the Pacific. The West Loch Hawaii’s will need to store additional prepositioned munitions, hold ordnance for ships undergoing repairs, and resupply more deploying ships to the Pacific. The West Loch channel has already been expanded to handle large newer Navy ammunition ships, such as handled by the Army MOTSU site in North Carolina which has a 3.5 mile ESQD safety arc, compared to West Loch which has a very much smaller ESQD and is located right next to many suburban homes in Ewa West Oahu.

See Figure 3 below for the layout of West Loch and shows the explosive safety boundaries associated with ammunition operations. Unlike Lualualei, West Loch is closer to residential areas. Ordnance operations in both Lualualei and West Loch are contracted out and are renewed annually by the Navy.

 


https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/lualualei.htm

Global Security: Naval Magazine, Lualualei May 2011

The Naval Magazine is located in Lualualei Valley on the leeward side of Oahu, with headquarters a few miles inland from the towns of Waianae and Nanakuli. The shipping and receiving center is located at West Loch. The Naval Magazine is a terminus for the kolekole Pass road which traverses the beautiful Waianae Mountains. The drive extends from the Waianae coast to Schofield Barracks and offers panoramic views. The road is closed to the public, but open to military personnel and their dependents on most days until sunset.

In January 2000 the designation Naval Magazine, Lualualei, Hawaii, was changed to Naval Magazine Pearl Harbor. The name change was a result of the command's recent headquarters move from the Lualualei Branch to Pearl Harbor's West Loch. Fifty W-80-0 munitions for Tomahawk SLCM's and 40 nuclear aerial bombs are stored in the Lualualei Naval Magazine (NAVMAG) at West Loch on Oahu, Hawaii.

In January 2000 Naval Magazine Lualualei held its official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the grand opening of the new headquarters building, located in the West Loch Branch, Ewa Beach. The Commanding Officer, Capt. Shawn Morrissey, kicked off the ceremony with an introductory speech. Following his speech, Lt. Leila Havadtoy provided a blessing for the new headquarters building. After the ribbon was officially cut, all attendees gathered together for a potluck barn-warming celebration, which was held right next to the waterfront and the headquarters.

Lualualei is located on land that consists of a thin layer of alluvial and coastal sediments and reef deposits overlying consolidated limestone. Civilian land use surrounding this facility is largely rural and the site is surrounded by agricultural and small areas of Urban and Conservation Land Use districts. Naval Magazine Lualualei, which occupies 8,105 acres of the valley. The nearest urban area is the town of Maili, which lies approximately 1 mile west of the station. The towns of Waianae and Nanakuli are also located nearby. Kolekole Pass is a narrow mountain road across the Waianae Mountain Ranges that provides vehicular access to Schofield Barracks. Lualualei is approximately 27 miles from downtown Honolulu.

http://archives.starbulletin.com/98/10/05/news/story1.html

The Navy owns more than 9,000 acres in the Waianae Valley. Its radio towers are a familiar sight, but more goes on beneath the earth.

The Navy has used Lualualei as an ammunition depot (initially Naval Ammunition Depot Oʻahu, now Naval Magazine Pearl Harbor) and a communications facility (Lualualei Naval Radio Transmitting Facility) since 1934.

Kolekole Pass forms a low crossing point through the Waiʻanae Mountains.  A prehistoric trail crossed Kolekole pass linking Waiʻanae Uka with Waiʻanae Kai.

Kolekole Pass Road is located on the federal lands connecting these military facilities on Waiʻanae coast of Oʻahu to Schofield Barracks Army Installation in Central Oahu.  The Army's 3rd Engineers corps constructed vehicular passage in 1937.

The Magazine facility, a terminus for the Kolekole Pass road, contains 255 aboveground storage structures capable of housing 78,000 tons of ammunition and explosives.  (hawaii.gov)  The shipping and receiving center is located at West Loch, Pearl Harbor.

Historic documentation Of Lualualei Ammunition facility 














West Oahu Missile City - Navy Virginia Class Attack Submarine Being Loaded At West Loch Pier W 4-5

 Compiled History by Ewa Historian John Bond

Google Earth Image of Navy Virginia Class Attack Submarine 

Being Loaded At West Loch Pier W 4-5

These are NOT nuclear weapons, they are conventional munitions

BELOW: Virginia class attack sub at “Whiskey” wharf W 4-5 for attack subs loading 12 Tomahawks and large assortment of Harpoon missiles (in green). Tomahawk can carry conventional or nuke but currently no nuke version being deployed, however Trump has left treaty which would allow Navy to rearm with nuke Tomahawk cruise missiles. Reportedly with hasn’t happened yet.

https://goo.gl/maps/8nAUZofR9V1kVeHu6

BONUS IMAGE  from Google Earth – Whisky Wharf W4-5 Virginia class attack sub loading with its full complement of 12 Tomahawks, Harpoons and Mk-48 torpedo's.

Usual Virginia class weapons armaments: 
12 × VLS (Tomahawk BGM-109) tubes
4 × 533 mm torpedo tubes (Mk-48 torpedo), RGM-84 Harpoon
25 × torpedoes & missiles (torpedo room) + 12 x missiles (VLS tubes)
Block V:
VPM module (28 Tomahawk BGM-109)
12 × VLS (Tomahawk BGM-109) tubes
4 × 533 mm torpedo tubes (Mk-48 torpedo), RGM-84 Harpoon
65 × torpedoes & missiles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia-class_submarine  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomahawk_(missile) 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpoon_(missile)  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_48_torpedo