An air cushioned landing craft, also called an LCAC (Landing craft

Landing craft

Landing craft are boats and seagoing vessels used to convey a landing force from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. Most renowned are those used to storm the beaches of Normandy, the Mediterranean, and many Pacific islands during WWII...

 air cushioned) is a modern variation on the amphibious landing boat. These craft are based on small- to mid-sized multi-purpose hovercraft

Hovercraft

A hovercraft is a craft capable of traveling over surfaces while supported by a cushion of slow moving, high-pressure air which is ejected against the surface below and contained within a "skirt." Although supported by air, a hovercraft is not considered an aircraft.Hovercraft are used throughout...

, also known as "over the beach" ("OTB") craft. This allows troops and material to access more than 70 percent of the world's coastline, while only approximately 15 percent of that coastline is available to conventional boat-type landing craft. Typical barriers to conventional landing craft are soft sand

Sand

Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...

y beach

Beach

A beach is a geological landform along the shoreline of an ocean, sea, lake or river. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles or cobblestones...

es, marsh

Marsh

In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, other herbaceous plants, and moss....

es, swamp

Swamp

A swamp is a wetland with some flooding of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a large number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp...

land, and loose surfaces. Air cushion technology has vastly increased the landing capability of the craft, providing greater speed and flexibility over traditional landing craft.

Like the mechanized landing craft, they are usually equipped with mounted machine gun

Machine gun

A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....

s, although they also support grenade launcher

Grenade launcher

A grenade launcher or grenade discharger is a weapon that launches a grenade with more accuracy, higher velocity, and to greater distances than a soldier could throw it by hand....

s and heavy weapons.

These vehicles are used by the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

, which first received the LCAC in 1984, the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

's Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

, the Russian Navy, the People's Liberation Army Navy

People's Liberation Army Navy

The People's Liberation Army Navy is the naval branch of the People's Liberation Army , the military of the People's Republic of China. Until the early 1990s, the navy performed a subordinate role to the PLA Land Forces. Since then, it has undergone rapid modernisation...

 and the Hellenic Navy

Hellenic Navy

The Hellenic Navy is the naval force of Greece, part of the Greek Armed Forces. The modern Greek navy has its roots in the naval forces of various Aegean Islands, which fought in the Greek War of Independence...

.

Types

• Aist class LCAC
  Aist class LCAC
  The Aist class was the first large assault hovercraft operated by the Soviet Navy.Designed by a design bureau wing of Almaz shipbuilding company in 1964-1965. Production lasted from 1970 until 1985 at Almaz plant at Leningrad....
  
   (Soviet tank-carrying hovercraft)
• Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC)
• LCAC(L)
• Jingsah II class LCAC
  Jingsah II class LCAC
  The Jingsah II class LCAC is a medium size air-cushioned landing craft operated by the People's Liberation Army Navy of China.-Description:...
  
  
• Zubr class LCAC
  Zubr class LCAC
  The Zubr class is a class of air-cushioned landing craft of soviet design. This class of military hovercraft is currently, as of 2008, the world’s largest hovercraft. There are currently nine ships in active service in the world. The Zubr is used by the Russian, Ukrainian, and Greek navies...
  
  

External links

• http://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=4200&tid=1500&ct=4
• http://www.hazegray.org/features/nato/us/lcac/
• http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/lcac-specs.htm
• http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/lcac.htm