LARC-V
The LARC (Lighter, Amphibious Resupply Cargo) was developed by the US Army to replace the World War II-era DUKW. Like the DUKW, it was meant to bring supplies and cargo from supply ships in harbor over a beachhead, then inland to supply dumps and frontline units, so it would have to be equally as home in the water as on land. Luckily, with the DUKW as a basis, development of the LARC series was relatively smooth.
Originally known as the BARC (Barge, Amphibious Resupply Cargo), the name was changed to LARC in 1960, and came in two forms: the medium-sized LARC-V (also known as LARC 5) and the larger LARC-LX (LARC 60). LARCs were also designed to be carried in a C-130 Hercules. To speed up deliveries, the LARCs were designed to accept common-sized pallets such as the ubiquitous Conex box; while the LARC-V could carry one Conex box, the LARC-LX could carry two. Development began in 1953 and the BARC/LARC-LX entered service in 1956. The LARC-V, due to hydrodynamic handling issues, did not follow until 1963.
Though the Vietnam War did not have any combat beach landings, the LARC still came in handy for offloading cargo offshore to bases near shore, such as the US Navy base at Cam Ranh Bay or the USAF/USMC base at Da Nang. For the latter, LARCs were so important that they were kept running almost 24 hours a day; if one broke down, parts were flown in from the United States, with priority over everything else. At the end of American involvement, those LARCs not turned over to the South Vietnamese were scuttled offshore--nearly 500 of them--simply because it was not considered cost effective to bring them back to the US.
After Vietnam, the LARC was kept in service, though it was supplemented by newer designs, helicopters, and hovercraft. The LARC-LX remained in service until 2001, whereas the LARC-V is still in limited use by both US Navy Construction Battalions (Seabees) and the US Army Corps of Engineers. These 200 or so remaining LARC-Vs were updated with new transmissions and navigation systems. Other LARCs found themselves in civilian use (where they serve as water taxis, alongside their DUKW predecessors) or in foreign service: Argentina used LARC-Vs in their invasion of the Falklands in 1982.
These two LARC-Vs are stored in the Russell Military Museum's "backyard." Both look to be in decent shape and may still be operable. I took this picture mainly because of my dad: briefly, after he left the USS Yorktown, he was assigned to a Navy salvage unit at Norfolk, Virginia. The salvage unit had two LARC-Vs assigned to it, and painted sharkmouths across the bow. When one of Dad's friends got lost in the Great Dismal Swamp during an exercise, the unit sent out one of the LARCs to rescue him that night. They ended up terrifying the poor man instead, as all he saw as the LARC came out of the swamp were two glowing headlights and the luminous sharkmouth!
LARC-V
The LARC (Lighter, Amphibious Resupply Cargo) was developed by the US Army to replace the World War II-era DUKW. Like the DUKW, it was meant to bring supplies and cargo from supply ships in harbor over a beachhead, then inland to supply dumps and frontline units, so it would have to be equally as home in the water as on land. Luckily, with the DUKW as a basis, development of the LARC series was relatively smooth.
Originally known as the BARC (Barge, Amphibious Resupply Cargo), the name was changed to LARC in 1960, and came in two forms: the medium-sized LARC-V (also known as LARC 5) and the larger LARC-LX (LARC 60). LARCs were also designed to be carried in a C-130 Hercules. To speed up deliveries, the LARCs were designed to accept common-sized pallets such as the ubiquitous Conex box; while the LARC-V could carry one Conex box, the LARC-LX could carry two. Development began in 1953 and the BARC/LARC-LX entered service in 1956. The LARC-V, due to hydrodynamic handling issues, did not follow until 1963.
Though the Vietnam War did not have any combat beach landings, the LARC still came in handy for offloading cargo offshore to bases near shore, such as the US Navy base at Cam Ranh Bay or the USAF/USMC base at Da Nang. For the latter, LARCs were so important that they were kept running almost 24 hours a day; if one broke down, parts were flown in from the United States, with priority over everything else. At the end of American involvement, those LARCs not turned over to the South Vietnamese were scuttled offshore--nearly 500 of them--simply because it was not considered cost effective to bring them back to the US.
After Vietnam, the LARC was kept in service, though it was supplemented by newer designs, helicopters, and hovercraft. The LARC-LX remained in service until 2001, whereas the LARC-V is still in limited use by both US Navy Construction Battalions (Seabees) and the US Army Corps of Engineers. These 200 or so remaining LARC-Vs were updated with new transmissions and navigation systems. Other LARCs found themselves in civilian use (where they serve as water taxis, alongside their DUKW predecessors) or in foreign service: Argentina used LARC-Vs in their invasion of the Falklands in 1982.
These two LARC-Vs are stored in the Russell Military Museum's "backyard." Both look to be in decent shape and may still be operable. I took this picture mainly because of my dad: briefly, after he left the USS Yorktown, he was assigned to a Navy salvage unit at Norfolk, Virginia. The salvage unit had two LARC-Vs assigned to it, and painted sharkmouths across the bow. When one of Dad's friends got lost in the Great Dismal Swamp during an exercise, the unit sent out one of the LARCs to rescue him that night. They ended up terrifying the poor man instead, as all he saw as the LARC came out of the swamp were two glowing headlights and the luminous sharkmouth!