LCACs receive service-life extensions - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

LCACs receive service-life extensions

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — The latest round of upgrades is underway for the Navy’s air-cushioned landing craft, an effort that will stretch their service life while a next-generation craft is finalized.

Work has begun on two LCACs at Camp Pendleton, and three more are slated to be rebuilt by the end of 2011.

It takes 12 to 14 months to improve each craft as part of the Navy’s LCAC Service Life Extension Program.

About 60 percent of the LCAC life extension involves work on the hull, installing new bumpers and repairing corrosion damage. Additionally, each craft gets a new deck surface, gas turbine engines and cockpit seats, said Senior Chief Gas Turbine Systems Technician Todd Cholger, who is helping oversee SLEP with the Camp Pendleton-based Assault Craft Unit 5.

New engines give the LCAC a little more horsepower and more reliability, especially in hotter temperatures, Cholger said.

The SLEP also improves the LCAC’s command, control, communications, computers and navigation systems.

Officials are counting on SLEP to add at least 10 years, and maybe longer, to the LCAC’s initial 20-year service life. The Navy, which began the SLEP in 2002, plans to extend 73 LCACs, or most of the existing fleet.

The Corps counts on the LCAC to deliver combat Marines, vehicles, equipment, weapons and supplies between amphibious ship well decks and the beach. Each LCAC carries up to 75 tons, including the M1 Abrams main battle tank, at speeds topping 45 mph, far faster than the utility landing craft.

“It’s all about moving the Marines,” said Capt. Ed Harrington, who commands ACU-5, composed of 650 personnel and 40 LCACs based at Camp Pendleton.

About one-third of the LCAC fleet has been modernized so far — 15 of ACU-5’s craft and about 10 at ACU-4, located at the Naval Amphibious Base in Little Creek, Va. Combined, both units provide detachments for all deploying amphibious ready groups and to Japan.

The SLEP, which could be completed by 2018, will buy time for the Navy to develop and buy the next-generation landing craft, known as the Ship-to-Shore Connector, for a modern fleet of 80 hovercraft. An SSC cost study is underway.

The SSC, as envisioned, will be a high-speed, heavy-lift hovercraft for over-the-horizon missions, operating between beaches, amphibious ships and the future Mobile Landing Platforms, the so-called “pier in the sea.” It would carry twice the weight of today’s LCAC, operate with a smaller crew and might be larger to accommodate heavier vehicles.