The Ramped Craft Logistic (RCL) is a type of 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...

 operated by the Royal Logistic Corps

Royal Logistic Corps

The Royal Logistic Corps provides logistic support functions to the British Army. It is the largest Corps in the Army, comprising around 17% of its strength...

 of the British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

. From the early 1980s onwards it was deployed to replace the RPL (Ramped Powered Lighter

Ramped Powered Lighter

The Ramped Powered Lighter was a type of landing craft formerly operated by the Royal Corps of Transport of the British Army, from the 1960s until the 1990s. It had a vehicle deck that was wide and long, and a load capacity of 30.5 tonnes . From the early 1980s onwards it was replaced with the...

). One of its first roles was to provide logistical support during the setting up of the garrison in the Falkland Islands

Falkland Islands

The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...

 immediately after the Falklands War

Falklands War

The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...

. There are currently RCLs stationed at the military port at Marchwood

Marchwood

Marchwood is a village and civil parish located in Hampshire, United Kingdom. It lies between Totton and Hythe on the western shore of Southampton Water, next to the New Forest. The population of the village in the 2001 census was 5,586.-History:...

, near Southampton

Southampton

Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...

, and at the British base at Akrotiri, Cyprus

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

.

Statistics

• Complement 6
• Length 33.3m
• Beam 8.3m
• Maximum draught (laden) 1.5m
• Displacement
  Displacement (fluid)
  In fluid mechanics, displacement occurs when an object is immersed in a fluid, pushing it out of the way and taking its place. The volume of the fluid displaced can then be measured, as in the illustration, and from this the volume of the immersed object can be deduced .An object that sinks...
  
   (laden) 290 tonnes
• Load capacity 96 tonnes (four 20ft ISO shipping container
  Shipping container
  A shipping container is a container with strength suitable to withstand shipment, storage, and handling. Shipping containers range from large reusable steel boxes used for intermodal shipments to the ubiquitous corrugated boxes...
  
  s) or 65 tonnes (four fully laden 8 tonne vehicles).
• Propulsion 2 x Dorman 8JTCWM diesel engine
  Diesel engine
  A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
  
  s
• Maximum speed (laden) 10 knots