The Navy accepted delivery of the next Ship-to-Shore Connector (SSC), Landing Craft, Air Cushion (LCAC) 106 on Thursday.
This came after the vessel completed acceptance trials with the Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV) that tested its readiness and capability and validated requirements.
Textron Systems [TXT] is in serial production of LCACs 10-5 – 116 at its New Orleans shipyard with 11 more currently in production, the Navy said.
The SSCs are designed to replace the legacy LCAC-01 class, transporting up to 70 tons of personnel, weapons, equipment and cargo to over-the-horizon distances after being launched from amphibious ships. They have similar dimensions as the older LCAC-01s but were designed to have better engines, higher payloads, smaller crews, simpler maintenance and fly-by-wire controls.
The SSCs are expected to have 30-year service lives and the Navy plans to procure up to 72 of them.
“We are excited to deliver this next generation craft to the Navy and Marine Corps team. LCACs are providing our Navy and partners with the speed and agility essential to our missions,” Capt. Jason Grabelle, program manager for Amphibious Assault and Connectors Programs at Program Executive Office (PEO) Ships, said in a statement.
Earlier, the Navy accepted LCAC-104 in June (Defense Daily, June 9).
In February, the Navy first tested two SSCs interfacing with an amphibious warship, the USS Carter Hall (LSD-50) dock landing ship, rather than a mock well deck at Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City, Fla. (Defense Daily, Feb. 10).
Then, in July, the USS Fort Lauderdale (LPD-28) transported LCACs-103 and -104 to their homeport at Norfolk, Va., after the ship was commissioned. LPD-28 is designed to hold and deploy LCACs from its well deck (Defense Daily, July 19).
According to Navy budget documents, LCAC-106 was delivered two months late.
The service’s fiscal year 2023 budget request said it expected LCAC-106 to be delivered by September, followed by LCAC-107 by March 2023. It also foresaw at least four more craft deliveries per year through 2030, ending with LCAC-138.
The Navy requested $190 million to buy two more SSCs and submitted a legislative proposal for authority to enter into block buy contracts for further craft.
The House version of the FY ‘23 defense authorization bill included a provision authorizing the Navy to enter into a block buy contract for up to 25 SSCs (Defense Daily, June 7).
However, the Senate version of the bill only covers 10 SSCs for the block buy option, so a conference committee may decide the final allowance.