BEBs are placed alongside the ribbon bridge with one boat to every three or four floats to keep the structure from drifting out of position in the current. As the bridge gets longer, it begins to resemble a slithering snake moving along the surface of the water.

It takes great skill for the boat operators to align the floats and keep them in position so that they can be anchored together.

The UltraJet waterjet drives ensured excellent manoeuvrability and high thrust performance for these difficult operations in strong currents.

The TACOM fleet of BEBs had been renovated shortly before the war. Tests on the aluminium hulls of existing craft verified they were in good condition and renovation was thus a cost effective solution. One of the key requirements for the waterjet propulsion was the ability to provide a minimum static boat thrust of 5,500lbs at an input power of 250hp per jet. During the evaluation stage only two waterjets worldwide were considered as having sufficient thrust capability.

In order to verify to TACOM that this thrust could be achieved using a twin UltraJet 305 installation, controlled static thrust tests were conducted in which static thrusts of 2,865lbs per jet were recorded at an input power of 250hp.

MJ Information No: 18507