US 11,485,458 B2 · Variable displacement landing craft

Abstract

A watercraft according to the present disclosure may include an outer hull that defines an interior or hull cavity, and a ballast system located within the hull cavity. The ballast system may include at least three ballast tanks longitudinally distributed along the hull cavity, and each of the tanks being configured to be independently operated enabling selective entrapment of ballast at three or more different longitudinal locations to enable an intentional shifting of the longitudinal center of gravity (LCG) of the watercraft relative to the design location of the LCG of the watercraft. The watercraft may include at least a forward, a center, and an aft ballast tank, and in some embodiments, additional tanks, in some cases in sponsons, may be included and/or one or more of the forward, center and aft tanks, may be further subdivided for additional active LCG control.

Claims26

Dependent claims

A variable displacement landing craft comprising:

a hull that extends from a bow to a stern of the landing craft, wherein the hull defines a hull cavity, and wherein a deadrise of the hull at the stern is less than a deadrise of the hull at a location forward of the stern;
and
an internal ballast system located within the hull cavity, wherein the internal ballast system comprises a plurality of ballast tanks longitudinally distributed along the hull cavity, wherein each of the plurality of ballast tanks is configured to be independently filled with or emptied of a liquid to enable selectively entrapping the liquid as ballast at a plurality of different longitudinal locations along a length of the hull to enable an intentional shifting of the longitudinal center of gravity (LCG) of the landing craft forward and aft of a design location of the LCG of the landing craft.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Variable displacement landing craft

Life of this patent

Variable displacement landing craft

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims26