via USNI News.
The Navy awarded Louisiana-based Swiftships, LLC an $18-million contract for the detail design and construction of the first Landing Craft Utility (LCU-1700) surface connector, a program that has seen both timeline acceleration efforts and some slow-downs over the past two years.Story here.
The LCU-1700 is meant to be a “modified repeat” that looks and functions much like its predecessor, the LCU-1610 that dates back to the late 1950s, with the addition of some improvements to boost reliability and maintainability, according to the service
The good thing that has happened with US defense contractors is that they're looking at requirements and exceeding them. It happened with the ACV 1.1. Required to cross only rivers and lakes, everyone involved attempted to move past that to build a platform that could get from ship to shore.
The same thing is going on with the LCU-1700.
I'm sure the idea was to get a refresh that improved reliability, lowered maintenance costs etc...I think the defense contracting community, in a triumph of free market thinking, exceeded those requirements.
If the above graphic is any indication then they blew the doors off.
Two M1 Abrams and a quartet of Humvees?
It might look old, it might look like it's daddy but it's a brand new bag!
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