Navy Inducts Landing Craft Utility Ship, Capable Of Transporting Battle Tanks

Adding more teeth to its amphibious warfare capabilities, the Navy today inducted a landing craft utility ship which will be deployed for a variety of activities including transporting battle tanks and other heavy weapons systems.

The ship - LCU L52 - was commissioned by Lt Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands Jagdish Mukhi at an event in Port Blair. "The LCU L52 is the second Landing Craft Utility (LCU) Mk-IV class to be inducted into the Indian Navy. The ship has been indigenously designed and built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata," the Navy said in a statement.

It said the primary role of LCU MK-IV ship is to transport and deploy main battle tanks, armoured vehicles, troops and equipment from ship to shore.

The Navy said the ship would be based in the Andaman and Nicobar command and can be deployed for multi-role activities like search and rescue as well as disaster relief operations.

It said the ship is capable of transporting various kinds of combat equipment such as main battle tanks Arjun, T72 and other vehicles. "The remaining six ships of the same class are in advanced stages of construction at GRSE, Kolkata and are scheduled to be inducted in the next two years," the Navy said.