Landing craft L-CAT. France

Vessels for direct landing have been in service with NATO countries for more than 30 years. And today the question arose about their replacement. The main requirements for future ships are an increase in carrying capacity, an increase in the landing compartment to the size of the possibility of reception and transportation tanks Abrams, increasing speed, and the allocation of additional places for medical facilities.

I present to you one of the projects of the landing craft of the future, developed by the French company CNIM. The project of this ship was named - L-CAT, and was first presented at the exhibition Evronaval 2008.

As you can see it is made according to the scheme - catamaran. It has a length of 30 and a width of 12,8 m. Four hydraulic cylinders raise and lower the landing platform. The material for this ship is aluminum. The power plant of the ship consists of four diesel engines with a total power of 5 MW. Which makes it possible to develop a catamaran maximum speed in 30 nodes, and at maximum load 20. L-CAT can deliver loads of up to 130 tons, two Leclerc tanks, 4 or 6 light tanks or armored vehicles (GVA).

The L-CAT has a cruising range in 1000 nautical miles with 15 nodes. The crew of the ship is only 4 person.

One of the advantages of this ship is convenience in carrying out amphibious operations. It can load and unload the landing force and cargo both in front and in the back, in contrast to old ships and competitors. Another advantage of the ship is the aluminum case. This solves the problem of corrosion and weight.

Based on this ship, a whole family of ships has been developed that can perform a wide variety of functions. In addition, they are still different from each other and purpose.