Why pykrete was a rational Project Habakkuk experiment

Was choosing pykrete for Project Habakkuk an incompetent decision?

No; it was an experimental answer to wartime steel scarcity, comparable to other unconventional concrete-warship ideas considered by major powers.

The panel rejects the claim that selecting pykrete proves British incompetence. Project Habakkuk asked whether a vast Atlantic aviation platform could be built without diverting the enormous quantity of steel a conventional hull would require. Pykrete was therefore a response to a real material constraint, even if the completed concept remained extraordinary. Earlier British and German proposals for concrete battleships show that unconventional structural materials were not unique to this project. Testing the idea was rational even though later operational and industrial changes made the carrier unnecessary.