French Navy accepts third of four fast amphibious landing craft (ALC) from builders
The French Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) has received the third of four fast amphibious landing craft Engin de Débarquement Amphibie Rapide (EDA-Rs) at Toulon, France.
The French Navy's Mistral-class Bâtiments de Projection et de Commandement (BPC) amphibious warfare ships will operate the EDA-R.
The 30m-long and 12m-wide catamaran landing craft vessel can carry a payload of 80t and will provide five times the landing capacity of the French Navy's current landing craft.
The EDA-R, when fully loaded, can cruise at a speed of 18 kts and will be used for landing military vehicles and troops from ships further offshore and for humanitarian missions.
EDA-R is a fast catamaran in transit mode and features a central elevating deck that makes it become a flat-bottomed ship to beach or enter an amphibious ship's well deck and is based on the Landing Catamaran (L-CAT) concept.