US Navy places $312 million contract with Textron Systems for landing craft
The order is for nine craft. (Photo: USN)
Textron’s latest order for Ship to Shore Connector (SSC), Landing Craft, Air Cushion (LCAC) follows on from a contract placed in August 2023 for five LCAC.
Textron systems will build nine 100 Class SSC LCAC under a US$312 million contract from the US Navy (USN) with delivery expected to be completed by October 2025.
The USN has committed $238 million from its fiscal year 2022–24 shipbuilding and conversion funds at time of the contract award. The work will take place at company’s sites in New Orleans in Louisiana, Camden in New Jersey and Gloucester in the UK, as well as other sites in the US.
In August 2023, the USN placed a similar order for five 100 Class craft under a $241.3 million deal.
In August 2015, Textron received an order for two 100 Class craft under an $84 million deal and the first of these was delivered in March 2020. The second was delivered six months later. The programme requirement is for 73 craft comprising one Test and Training and 72 operational craft.
The company described the Class 100s “as the evolutionary replacement for the Navy’s existing fleet of LCACs, which are nearing the end of their service life”.
“Their mission is to land surface assault elements in support of operational manoeuvre from the sea, at over-the-horizon distances, while operating from the Navy’s amphibious ships and mobile landing platforms,” the company said.
The craft have a displacement of 180.57t, measures 28m in length, has a beam of 14.63m and a draft of 1.52m.
Powered by four Rolls Royce MT7 gas turbine engines, the LCAC 100 class will be capable of a maximum speed of 35kt at Sea State 3 and will also have a crew complement of four including a pilot, loadmaster and deck engineer.
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