Just saw a new French equipment that can ferry heavy tanks from
ship to shore.
Real cool - waterjets, fast catamaran and can carry heavy tanks
because can carry more than 100T. Maybe even Leo2.
See photo below, can even do ramp to ramp! Wow!
Richard Scott
Tuesday, 24 February, 2009
The French Navy has begun an evaluation of a novel
variable-draught landing craft, known as the L-Cat, to assess its
suitability as a potential future expeditionary watercraft.
Constructions Industrielles de la Meditérranée (CNIM), located
in Hall 7, Stand B31, has funded the construction of the full-scale
L-Cat demonstrator, built by the Gemelin shipyard in La Rochelle,
France. The design is intended to meet operational requirements for
a fast shipto-shore connector, combining the attributes of a deep
draught vessel and a landing craft to offer high speed, excellent
manoeuvrability and increased payload.
The L-Cat concept achieves this by giving the flexibility to
raise or lower a pontoon deck to enable operation in any one of
three modes. In transit the L-Cat is a catamaran; the pontoon deck
is raised between the two hulls. In beaching mode, the pontoon is
lowered and in dock mode the platform is totally or partially
flooded.
CNIM says that while the L-Cat concept is innovative, the
underpinning technologies are low risk: the hull adopts standard
naval architecture ratios and aluminium alloy structures; the
propulsion system uses standard diesel engines and waterjets; and
the hydraulic lifting rams are based on proven technology. The
detailed design and build of the L-Cat prototype have been
privately funded by CNIM.
The demonstrator vessel is a baseline 30m, 300-tonne
displacement L-Cat design of aluminium construction, capable of
speeds of 20kt at its maximum 110-tonne design payload. Draught,
fully loaded in catamaran mode, is 2.5m. The French Navy began
trialling the L-Cat in December 2008.
An evaluation with the multipurpose amphibious ship Mistral was
conducted in mid-February, during which the L-Cat berthed in the
ship’s stern dock and performed ramp-to-ramp vehicle transfers.
Feedback from the French Navy has been extremely positive,
according to CNIM. Further trials, using Foudreclass and
Mistral-class amphibious ships, are planned.
