BMT CAIMEN® Landing Craft

Flexible and affordable, the CAIMEN® Family of Landing Craft provide customisable solutions that can be adapted to suit the requirements of military and security forces worldwide.

Due to operational pressures, many navies are now considering launching their landing craft further offshore, therefore increasing the demand for flexible design, increased speeds and enhanced safety functions of landing crafts, all of which are key elements of our CAIMEN® designs.

Landing craft are an essential part of the system required to deliver amphibious forces, vehicles, equipment and supplies to a beachhead.

CAIMEN® Large Landing Craft and Ships

Developed for larger payloads, the monohull CAIMEN® series is designed to deliver heavier rolling and cargo payloads directly to a beach, hard standing or port, with the capability for international voyages or open sea conditions. Arranged with a large either open or enclosed cargo deck, the vessels are configured for the delivery of amphibious operations, tactical movement of military vehicles, general logistics, resupply and Humanitarian operations.

The efficient hullform is developed to provide stability and robustness during beaching operations, whilst still offering good seaworthiness. It is designed to allow beaching for cargo off-loading via the bow with a minimal fording depth, typically 1m or less, featuring a bow visor enclosing a bi-folding ramp assessed to suit the requirements.

With a full length cargo deck enabling vehicle roll-on roll-off via stern and bow loading / unloading, the design also features vehicle deck space from 340m² to 950m² as 2 or 4 vehicle lanes width, according to size. Typical cargo payloads range from 200 tonnes through to 1000 tonnes with individual loads considered up to 60 tonnes, and additional options for heavier vehicles (e.g. main battle tanks).

An open vehicle deck allows direct loading from alongside a pier to the cargo deck, larger designs can be enclosed. The deck crane provided for self loading and unloading can also launch boats stowed on the vehicle deck, enhancing the utility of the vessel. Deck stations for vehicle fuelling, vehicle washing and power for stowed containers can be provided.

Troop accommodation can be provided for extended embarkation. Crew accommodation in the superstructure includes a central galley, dining and recreational spaces. Mass Evacuation Systems are included for regulatory compliance and larger designs accommodate a dedicated ships boat.

The design uses all steel robust construction in accordance with classification society rules (such as Lloyds Register or ABS) and is compliant to MARPOL 73/78 Annexes I, IV, V and VI (Tier II), IMO Fire Safety, Water Ballast Management and SOLAS regulations. Propulsion features twin shafts with two propulsion diesel engines driving through reduction gearboxes, two diesel generators provide electrical power; tailoring for redundant power and propulsion notations and separate engine rooms are available for variants of the design.

The vessel is designed for a service speed of up to 15 knots and a range of between 2000 to 3500nm is available depending on vessel size. Endurance of up to 20 days for the crew and embarked troops.

CAIMEN® Range of Fast Landing Craft 

The range of CAIMEN® fast landing craft designs spans from the CAIMEN® 60 (with 60t capacity for payload and fuel), through the CAIMEN® 100 (which can carry a main battle tank at 85t), to the CAIMEN® 150 (with a 120t payload capacity). The range of vessels offer speeds of more than 30 knots, coupled with the variety of payload carrying capabilities.

This simplicity of design supports platform availability, maintainability, and life-cycle cost. CAIMEN® can operate at high speeds with heavy payloads, allowing faster amphibious operations, such as offload from a host ship, or a range of independent shore to shore activities, compared with slower, more conventional landing craft.

CAIMEN® Tribow Hullform

At the heart of the CAIMEN® fast landing craft concept is the unique tribow monohull hullform. This innovative yet deceptively simple design provides the following crucial capabilities, all of which provide fundamental advantages when compared with more conventional landing craft:

• Ability to deliver high speeds of 30+ knots in lighter payload conditions and 20+ knots while carrying a main battle tank.
• Superior seakeeping and stability when operating in high sea states, and at high speed with a heavy payload, offering enhanced motions (for crew comfort and payload lashing) and minimal speed reduction in waves.
• Design for shallow water operation in littoral environments and within inland waterways.
• High manoeuvrability at all speeds, including at slow speed and in close quarters operations.
• Specific design for stability when engaging with the beach, floating causeway systems, mother ships and piers for payload transfer. The inherent beach stability provided by the tribow forward shape provides confidence in the safe and efficient delivery of troops and vehicles.
• Ability to scale the hullform for use at different vessel sizes and speeds.
• Triple waterjet arrangement, providing protected propulsion for shallow water operations and manoeuvrability, coupled with significant propulsion redundancy.
• Design for beach extraction where due to a raised central waterjet, a minimum of one waterjet is available for use even in fully beached scenarios, providing self-propelled beach extraction capability.

More information available at: https://hub.bmt.org/bmt-caimen-landingcraft