Title: Landing Craft, Air Cushioned (LCAC)/Landing Craft, Mechanized and Utility (LCM/LCU)/Assault Amphibian Vehicle (AAV)
Action: Pictures of landing craft are shown on the right. The following text is shown beside them:
The landng craft air cushion (LCAC) is a high-speed, over-the-beach fully amphibious landing craft capable of carrying a 60-75 ton payload. It is used to transport weapons systems, equipment, cargo and personnel from ship to shore and across the beach. The advantages of air-cushion landing craft are numerous. They can carry heavy payloads, such as an M-1 tank, at high speeds. Their payload and speed mean more forces reach the shore in a shorter time, with shorter intervals between trips. The air cushion allows this vehicle to reach more than 70 percent of the world’s coastline, while conventional landing craft can land at only 15 percent of the coasts.
Landing craft are capable of transporting tracked or wheeled vehicles and troops from amphibious assault ships to beachheads or piers. LCM’s feature a bow ramp for onload and offload. LCU’s have both bow and stern ramps for onload/offload at either end. The use of landing craft in amphibious assault dates from World War II. The craft are carried aboard amphibious assault ships to the objective area.
The Assault Amphibian Vehicle (AAV) is a full-tracked landing vehicle available in three models. The personnel model carries troops in water operations from ship to shore, through rough water and surf zone. It also carries troops to inland objectives and ashore. The command model gives you a mobile task force communication center in water operations from ship to shore and to inland objectives after ashore. The recovery model is designed to recover similar or smaller size vehicles. It also carries basic maintenance equipment to provide field support maintenance to vehicles in the field.