Security: Long Beach

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The Port of Long Beach has taken delivery of a refurbished and retrofitted landing craft designed to reinforce its emergency recovery capabilities.

Long Beach Port Deploys Refurbished Emergency Landing Craft to Assist in Emergency Recovery

The Port of Long Beach has taken delivery of a refurbished and retrofitted landing craft designed to reinforce its emergency recovery capabilities.

Donated by the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency, the Landing Craft Mechanized Mark 8, or LCM-8, underwent 12 months of renovations to add cleaner engines, a salvage crane and a galley.

The renovations cost $1.5 million and were primarily funded by the California Port and Maritime Security Grant Program.

The vessel will mainly be used by the port’s security division in support of disaster recovery operations and as the primary launch platform for the division’s dive team and multi-agency dive training.

A hydraulic system with an eight-ton crane mounted to vessel’s side can be used to hoist vehicles out of the water and lower them into the well deck. A "drop-down ramp" can be lowered to allow emergency vehicles to drive from land directly onto the boat and back out again in circumstances where roads and bridges are impassable.

Long Beach’s new emergency landing craft.
Photo/Port of Long Beach