Austal USA has officially launched its first U.S. Navy Landing Craft Utility (LCU) vessel, designated LCU 1710, at its shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, on August 22. The ship is the lead vessel of the new LCU-1700 class, which will replace the Navy’s aging LCU-1650 fleet.
The program began with a September 2023 contract valued at $91.5 million for three LCUs, with options for nine more that could push the program’s worth to nearly $380 million. In August 2024, the Navy expanded the order by exercising options for two additional ships, bringing the total confirmed vessels under construction to five. Austal USA currently has three LCUs in active production.
The LCU-1700 is built with a 139-foot steel hull, a 31-foot beam, and displaces approximately 428 long tons. Designed for heavy transport, the vessel features roll-on/roll-off bow and stern ramps that allow vehicles, troops, and supplies to be loaded and unloaded with efficiency.
A key innovation of the design is its ability to link multiple LCUs together to form an improvised causeway, greatly enhancing offload operations in contested or remote environments. This flexibility is expected to provide the U.S. Navy with a more resilient and adaptable logistics capability.
