"Navy's first Ship to Shore Connector (SSC) " Topic

"Textron, Inc. began fabrication of the Navy's first Ship to Shore Connector (SSC) at its New Orleans facility Nov. 17. In October, the Navy approved Textron to start production following the SSC Production Readiness Review during which the Navy evaluated the design maturity, availability of materials, and industry's ability to start and sustain fabrication.

"It's an exciting time," said Capt. Chris Mercer, program executive office ships program manager for amphibious warfare. "Starting production on this next generation Landing Craft, Air Cushion (LCAC) is a significant milestone for the Navy and Marine Corps. The craft benefits from a mature design and sound production process, paving the way for many more craft to follow. Once delivered, these craft will fill a critical need to recapitalize the Navy's surface connectors."

The SSC will serve as the evolutionary replacement for the existing fleet of LCAC vehicles, which are nearing the end of their service life. The SSC will use more corrosion-resistant aluminum in the hull than LCAC as well as composites in the propeller shroud assembly and shafting to increase craft availability and lower life-cycle maintenance costs…"

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Amicalement
Armand

Loud, very loud.

Useless in moderate sea states. If they can't get on the bubble, they might as well be left on the beach and replaced with LCUs….

Regards,

Scott Chisholm

Gee and one tank per trip…sigh

LCU's aren't much better in terms of cargo capacity, Abrams are just too dang heavy. The US would need 50-ton or lighter tanks to carry 2 per LCU.

I just had an idea for a different/possibly better landing craft: have you seen the French EDA-R catamaran/lighter ( link )? Add surface effect ( link ) blowers to that design for increased speed, basically turning it into a semi-hovercraft capable of 60+ knots in Sea State 6. One of the US's designs (SES 100B) achieved 96 knots in the Gulf of Mexico. The downside to the SES design is that it's still a boat and cannot go across the beach like an LCAC. But it's got a good number of advantages, like the ability to operate at speed in much higher sea states.