LCAC Hovercraft: US Navy’s Champion Schleppers Get SLEPped

LCAC versatility

The US military calls them Landing Craft, Air Cushion (LCAC). They’re high-speed, fully amphibious hovercraft capable of carrying a 60-ton payload (75 tons in overload) over water and land at speeds in excess of 40 knots and a nominal range of up to 200 nautical miles. Carrying equipment, troops, and/or supplies, the LCAC launches from inside the well deck of an amphibious warship, then travels the waves at high speed, runs right through the surf zone near the beach, and stops at a suitable place on land. Its cargo walks or rolls off. The LCAC returns to the surf to pick up more. Rinse. Agitate. Repeat.

LCAC, ashore

A total of 91 LCACs were built between 1984-2001, and their design itself dates back to the 1970s. They require regular maintenance, refurbishment, upgrades, and even life extension programs to keep them operational into the future. This free-to-view Spotlight article will covers the program from 2005 forward, tracking contracts and key events.

The Odyssey: Greece’s U-214 Submarine Order

Papanikolis at HDW

On Monday Sept 21/09, ThyssenKrupp Marine informed the Greek Minister of Defence that it was canceling “The Archimedes Project” contract for 4 U-214 diesel-electric submarines with Air-Independent Propulsion technology, because the government’s payments had remained underwater for too long. That development was the just the latest chapter in a long and continuing saga. If the issue remains unresolved, or arbitration results in termination payments but no delivery, Greece could find itself without a submarine force.

Accumulated payment arrears were over EUR 520 million (then $767 million), and so ThyssenKrupp and its subsidiary Hellenic Shipyards sought international arbitration, in order to recover some of the payments due under its contract. A resolution was arrived at, but failed execution by Hellenic Shipyards has left Greece’s future submarine fleet in limbo, even as investigations and trials are sending former Greek officials to court and to jail for corruption associated with the purchase.

The Regional, Global, and Digital Dimensions of the ISIS Conflict

• Reuters: riots in Turkey kill 19 over failure to aid besieged Syrian Kurds. This conflict is getting increasingly regional.

• The Guardian describes the hi-tech media jihad conducted by ISIS:

“Isis’s global media operation appears to have two key objectives: to provoke the US and its allies, and to recruit from outside the Middle East. Both seem to be working.”

• Ahmad Abousamra, a dual American-Syrian citizen on the FBI’s most wanted terrorists list, may be [ABC News] one of the computer-savvy English-speaking people behind ISIS’ online propaganda.

• Al Jazeera reports how the town of Tuz Khurmatu in northern Iraq may have technically been “freed” from ISIS, but the extensive booby trapping they left behind has turned the place into a ghost town. And according to Iraq Oil Report Shia militia and Kurdish fighters clashed there just days ago.

• Australia was able to send its Super Hornets to provide air cover [Sydney Morning Herald] to local troops in Iraq thanks to closed-room cabinet decisions made back in 2006, reports News Ltd.

• France flew its 1st night mission above Iraq with 2 Rafales last week, with air refueling provided by one of their C135-FRs as well as a USAF KC10: MINDEF [in French], video.