Türkiye Advances LCT-80 Landing Craft Tank for Export to Asia for Coastal Force Projection.

Türkiye’s TAIS Shipyards has unveiled the LCT-80 Landing Craft Tank, an 80-meter amphibious platform designed to move armored vehicles, troops, and cargo directly from sea to shore. The system strengthens assault and reinforcement operations by allowing forces to land combat power without relying on vulnerable or damaged port infrastructure.

The LCT-80’s shallow-draft design enables access to austere coastlines and contested littorals where larger vessels cannot operate. This capability supports rapid force projection, sustainment, and disaster response, aligning with growing demand for flexible amphibious logistics in modern expeditionary warfare.

Related topic: Malaysia Unveils MSU MK III ISR Vehicle with Radar EO AIS for Coastal Security Operations.

TAIS Shipyards’ LCT-80 Landing Craft Tank on display at DSA 2026 in Kuala Lumpur, showcasing Türkiye’s 80-meter amphibious platform designed to land tanks, troops, and mission cargo directly onto austere shores (Picture source: Army Recognition Group).

The vessel is tailored for regional littoral operations. Measuring 79.8 meters in length and 11.7 meters in beam, with less than 1 meter of forward draft and less than 2.5 meters aft, the craft combines beach-access capability with useful sea endurance. With a range of 1,500 nautical miles and seven days of endurance, it is clearly aimed at operators seeking practical amphibious lift without moving to a much larger and costlier landing ship.

The LCT-80 is a straightforward but effective military workhorse. TAIS lists twin diesel engines generating 2 x 2,320 kW, transmitted through gearboxes, shafts, and fixed-pitch propellers, producing speeds of more than 18 knots and accommodation for about 20 crew. That mix of speed, moderate endurance, and very shallow approach draft is what makes the platform tactically relevant: it can shuttle between a mothership, a port, or a protected anchorage and an unimproved beach far more efficiently than heavier landing ships.

The armament is intentionally limited but appropriate for the mission set. The LCT-80 is equipped with two 25 mm guns and two 12.7 mm machine guns, supported by an electro-optical sensor, navigation radar, fiber-optic inertial navigation, WECDIS, DGPS, echo sounder, EM log, and HF/UHF/VHF military communications. This does not make the craft a surface combatant, but it does provide enough self-protection and situational awareness for the vulnerable approach, unloading, and withdrawal phases in contested or congested coastal waters.

The project’s development path is one of its strongest selling points. The design emerged from Türkiye’s own naval requirements, with a contract in 2008 covering eight LCTs for the Turkish Naval Forces. All were delivered within 36 months, giving the class an operational record before its export promotion began. That is important in a market where many amphibious ship concepts are offered as paper designs with limited in-service validation.

Known operators today are Türkiye and Qatar. The Turkish Navy received the class in 2012, while Qatar later acquired a derivative under the Al Abrar project, which included one LCT alongside smaller landing craft. This export success shows that the design has moved beyond a purely domestic requirement and now sits within a broader category of deployable, proven amphibious connectors suitable for Gulf, Mediterranean, and Indo-Pacific users.

For a user navy or marine force, the LCT-80’s main value lies in flexibility. The design offers a vehicle deck of about 410 square meters and can carry around 260 tons of mixed vehicles, three main battle tanks, or roughly 260 marines in beach-landing configuration. In pier-to-pier transport mode, the payload can scale to as many as seven tanks. That makes the vessel useful not only for amphibious assault, but also for reinforcement of remote garrisons, tactical sealift between islands, coastal resupply, and the movement of heavy engineering assets.

Operationally, a country can use the LCT-80 in several ways. In wartime, it can deliver armor and mechanized infantry onto austere beaches, support distributed amphibious operations, or sustain forces on isolated islands and exposed coastal sectors. In gray-zone or deterrence scenarios, it can demonstrate the ability to reinforce forward positions quickly without dependence on ports. In peacetime, the same platform can support humanitarian assistance, evacuation missions, and rapid movement of relief cargo after storms, floods, or earthquakes. For middle powers with long coastlines or archipelagic geography, this kind of vessel offers an affordable way to build credible littoral mobility.

Compared with competitors, the LCT-80 occupies a focused tactical niche. Designs such as Damen’s LSL 80 offer greater range, while larger ships such as the LST 100 provide more troop capacity and strategic lift. The Turkish craft, however, trades some of that reach for a shallower draft, compact form, and efficient armored shuttle role in short-to-medium-range littoral operations. In practical terms, it is better understood not as a mini-amphibious ship but as a purpose-built connector optimized for getting combat mass ashore quickly and repeatedly.

The LCT-80 is a pragmatic combat support asset that turns coastal access into usable military effect. For navies and marine forces seeking affordable amphibious credibility, distributed logistics, and a platform usable in both military and civil-support operations, the LCT-80 stands out as a mature and operationally relevant solution.