Türkiye presents LCT-80 landing craft tank at DIMDEX 2026 for modern amphibious operations.

TAIS Shipyards presented the LCT-80 Landing Craft Tank at DIMDEX 2026 as a shallow-draft amphibious transport vessel intended for coastal access, beach landings, and regional logistics operations.

In January 2026, TAIS Shipyards displayed a scale model of its LCT-80 Landing Craft Tank at DIMDEX 2026 in Doha. The vessel is a medium-sized amphibious transport designed for coastal access, beach landings, and regional logistics operations without relying on established ports. The design emphasizes vehicle and troop lift, sustained coastal endurance, and dual-use applicability for military transport and humanitarian support missions.
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The LCT-80 is a Landing Craft Tank with a length overall of 79.8 meters, a maximum beam of 11.7 meters, and a depth of 5.2 meters, supporting the carriage of heavy vehicles and personnel on an open deck. (Picture source: Army Recognition)

The display focused on a ship designed to move troops, vehicles, and equipment directly between sea and land without reliance on port infrastructure, while also covering peacetime transport and humanitarian support tasks. By showing the LCT-80 within the DIMDEX framework, TAIS associated the craft with regional and export-oriented requirements for coastal access, disaster response, and amphibious lift. The model illustrated the vessel’s mission profile, dimensions, onboard systems, and propulsion arrangement as a complete and self-contained configuration rather than a conceptual design.

The LCT-80 is a Landing Craft Tank with a length overall of 79.8 meters, a maximum beam of 11.7 meters, and a depth of 5.2 meters, supporting the carriage of vehicles and personnel on an open deck. Draft is specified as less than 1.0 meter forward and less than 2.5 meters aft, enabling beach approaches and shallow coastal operations while retaining seagoing capability. Displacement is listed at 1,156 tonnes, and accommodation is arranged for a crew of 24 personnel. In terms of performance, the LCT-80 has a maximum speed of 18 knots and a sustained speed of 16.5 knots, for a range of 1,500 nautical miles and an endurance of seven days.

Propulsion for the LCT-80 consists of diesel engines connected through gearboxes and shafts to fixed-pitch propellers, with two diesel engines, each rated at 2,320 kW. This arrangement supports both shallow-water maneuvering and longer transits between operating areas. Navigation and ship handling are supported by a suite that includes fiber optic inertial navigation, WECDIS, DGPS, echo sounder, EM log, navigation radar, and meteorological sensors, allowing operations in coastal, littoral, and near-shore environments. Communications equipment covers HF, UHF, and VHF military communications, supplemented by SART, EPIRB, and CCTV, supporting coordination during amphibious operations and safety during independent deployments.

The LCT-80’s weapon and sensor fit reflects a transport-focused role with limited self-defense capability. Armament consists of two 25 mm main guns and two 12.7 mm guns, providing protection against close-range surface and asymmetric threats during approach, unloading, and withdrawal. Sensor coverage includes an electro-optical sensor alongside navigation radar, supporting situational awareness in coastal waters and during low-visibility conditions. Combined with the communications and navigation fit, this configuration supports coordination with amphibious forces, escort units, and shore elements during operations.

TAIS Shipyards positions the LCT-80 within a broader family of amphibious ships developed by the consortium, covering landing craft tanks and larger amphibious vessels such as the LHD-230. Established in 2017, the consortium brings together five major private Turkish shipyards under a single structure to pool industrial capacity, engineering expertise, and production infrastructure for domestic and international customers. TAIS operates primarily from shipbuilding hubs in Istanbul and Yalova, areas that concentrate a large share of Türkiye’s naval construction activity. Its scope covers the design and construction of surface combatants, amphibious ships, logistics vessels, patrol ships, and auxiliary craft. The consortium approach enables parallel construction across multiple yards and supports export-oriented naval programs alongside domestic requirements. This structure is intended to meet defined delivery schedules and industrial participation requirements for complex naval projects.

The origins of the Landing Craft Tanks (LCTs), a class of amphibious assault vessels, trace back to the United Kingdom in 1940 when Prime Minister Winston Churchill, aware of the limitations of earlier small landing craft for heavy armored vehicles, including tanks, artillery, trucks, and support vehicles, pushed for vessels that could land tanks and substantial cargo directly on enemy beaches. During World War II, LCTs participated in multiple major amphibious assaults such as Operation Overlord on June 6, 1944 (D-Day), where hundreds of LCTs delivered essential tanks and vehicles onto the Normandy beaches. They were also employed extensively in North Africa (Operation Torch), Sicily (Operation Husky), and operations in the Mediterranean and Pacific theaters, transporting heavy equipment crucial for establishing and reinforcing beachheads.

Born from urgent wartime requirements and expanded through massive wartime production, the LCT concept became one of the defining elements of modern amphibious warfare and influenced post-war amphibious operations worldwide. Unlike smaller infantry landing craft, LCTs were at the time among the largest landing craft vessels and featured flat-bottom hulls for beaching, large bow ramps to allow vehicles to disembark directly onto shore, and open cargo decks optimized for tracked and wheeled loads, allowing the infantry to be supported immediately by tanks and mechanized units upon landing, despite intense enemy fire and challenging sea conditions. In short, these vessels are primarily logistical connectors, enabling the movement of land forces across the sea-land boundary rather than serving as frontline combat ships.

Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.