Maneuver Support Vessel (Light)

The U.S. Army awarded Vigor the contract to build its new generation landing craft in the fall of 2017. The design for the MSV(L) was developed in partnership with BMT following a detailed study of the Army's unique needs and the available design options fulfill those needs. It dramatically improves the current LCM-8 and provides the optimal combination of performance, operational flexibility and life-cycle cost while maintaining the reliability and versatility of the Army’s current craft. The contract calls for one prototype vessel, four vessels under low rate production, and up to thirty two additional vessels over ten years for use by Army Mariners in even the most difficult environments.

The landing craft’s tribow monohull is an innovative yet deceptively simple design that provides superior maneuverability and stability in high sea states, through the littorals and within inland waterways in support of land-based operations. MSV(L) is a natural evolution of the BMT Caimen-90®, leveraging more than a decade of extensively-tested performance and adapted by the Vigor-BMT team to meet U.S. Army requirements.

DESIGN INNOVATION

• Innovative tribow monohull form maximizes seakeeping, beached stability and provides speeds in excess of 20 knots fully laden
• Exceptional seakeeping characteristics enhance crew comfort and reduce strain on payload
• Raised center jet and 4 foot (1.2 meter) draft fully laden enable landings on the shallowest beaches
• Simplicity of design improves platform availability, maintainability, and life-cycle cost

MISSION EFFECTIVENESS

• The flexibility to maneuver in many different environments
• The ability to carry modern equipment into diverse littoral settings, up to and including a main battle tank
• Greater maneuver options in anti-access, area-denial environments
• Superior seakeeping and survivability
• No height constraints on payload
• Range of 360+ nautical miles