Blast from the past. The "T-Craft".

What is a  "T-Craft".  Luckily Mike from NEW WARS Blog left his stuff up after he stopped posting so I can grab info from his site...

Enter the T-Craft. Textron’s version is 253 feet long and carries a 250-350-ton payload – an M1 tank company or an entire Patriot battery. In long-range mode, as a waterjet-powered catamaran, it can ferry itself empty over 2500 miles of open ocean. Backing up to the stern of the ro-ro, it activates its air-cushion fans and uses a sophisticated three-dimensional positioning system to maintain station on the ship, which deploys a stern ramp so that vehicles can load.

Read his write up here.  This program or concept has fallen off the radar.  Where once it was viewed as the modern day LST that would connect the sea base to the shore from upwards of 250 miles away, today we hear nothing about it.  Pity.  The Mobile Landing Platform was a gimmick without substance.  I'm proven correct by Navy plans to convert most of those ships to Afloat Forward Staging Bases, instead of using them in conjunction with the Sea Base.  The T-Craft however would have proven useful to both US Army and Marine Corps operations.  After an initial Marine Corps assault, a T-Craft would be able to land a Stryker Brigade in short order.  Consider this an opportunity missed.