Assault Craft Unit 5 (ACU 5) is the United States Navy's Pacific operating unit for the Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC). Headquartered at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, their mission is transporting, ship-to-shore and across the beach, personnel, weapons, equipment, and cargo of the assault elements of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force. ACU-5 has over 400 sailors, organized in five

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

s. A part of the United States Pacific Fleet, ACU-5 administratively reports to Commander, Naval Beach Group 1, a part of

Expeditionary Strike Group 3 Expeditionary Strike Group 3 is an expeditionary strike group (ESG) of the U.S. Navy. Expeditionary strike groups combine the capabilities of surface action groups, submarines, and maritime patrol aircraft with those of Amphibious Ready Groups f ...

Departments

Operations department

The Operations department plans and executes the deployments of the unit's LCACs. Some of the sailors are deployed with

amphibious Amphibious means able to use either land or water. In particular it may refer to: Animals * Amphibian, a vertebrate animal of the class Amphibia (many of which live on land and breed in water) * Amphibious caterpillar * Amphibious fish, a fish ...

readiness groups (ARG's).

Maintenance department

The ACU-5 Maintenance department has 5 maintenance groups that are in charge of the repair and upkeeping of LCACs.

Supply department

The Supply department is given an annual

budget A budget is a calculation play, usually but not always financial, for a defined period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including time, costs and expenses, environmenta ...

of 18 million dollars, and is required to catalog warehouses full uniforms, machine parts and equipment. Most of these warehouses have over 9,000 parts each.

Training department

The Training Department provides basic and advanced LCAC operational training to all members of ACU-5. Much of ACU-5's LCAC training is conducted by Expeditionary Warfare Training Group Pacific (EWTGPAC).

Executive department

The Executive department is in charge of any administrative, technical, or medical paperwork involving ACU-5.

LCAC

LCAC or Landing Craft Air Cushion are air cushion vehicles, operated by the U.S. Navy and Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force. The concept design for the modern day LCAC began in the early 1970s. The purpose of the LCACs are to "carry heavy vehicles and cargo" onto beaches at high speeds and over longer distances. The LCACs are currently undergoing a Service Life Extension Program (SLEP), which will be completed on all 72 craft by 2020. LCAC of ACU-5 at Camp Pendleton

Operations

During Operation Desert Storm in 1991, there were eleven LCACs stationed on the Persian Gulf; this was the LCAC's largest deployment. In 1992, ACU-5 deployed 3 LCACs to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and created a permanent military presence called detachment Westpac Alfa, which in 2012 became its own command, Naval Beach Unit 7, with 7 LCACS permanently stationed in Sasebo, Japan. ACU-5 conducted landings in Somalia to help with Operation Restore Hope.

References

{{reflist Amphibious units and formations of the United States Navy