Indian Naval Landing Craft Utility (LCU) L58, the eighth and last ship of the Landing Craft Utility (LCU) Mark IV Class, was commissioned into the Indian Navy on March 18, 2021. Indigenously designed and built by GRSE, Kolkata, the ship’s commissioning adds one more feather in the cap of the nation’s ‘Make in India’ and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ programme in the field of warship design and construction.
Commander Krishan K Yadav is the first Commanding Officer of the ship. Five officers and 50 sailors man the ship.
The LCU 58, an amphibious ship can carry 160 troops, in addition to its crew. With a displacement of 900 tons, the ship can carry various types of combat vehicles such as Main Battle Tanks (MBTs), BMPs, Armoured Vehicles and trucks.
The ship measures 63 meters in length and fitted with two MTA 4,000 series engines capable of propelling the ship at speeds of up to 15 knots (28 kmph). The ship also has advanced Electronic Support Measure (ESM) suite to intercept enemy radar transmissions. It has advanced Integrated Bridge System (IBS) and sophisticated Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS). All these allow single station monitoring of the ship’s navigational and machinery equipment respectively.
The main armament of the ship includes two indigenously manufactured 30 mm CRN 91 guns, controlled by a Stabilised Optronic Pedestal (SOP), an electronic day-night director sight manufactured by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL). In addition, the ship also has six Machine Gun Posts to neutralise air, surface and sub-conventional threats.
The LCU 58 would be based at Port Blair.
