During World War II, the American military took a big gamble on landing naval infantry and armour – the Americans used the strategy of quickly capturing coastline using landing ships in all three theaters of war. The landing ships and boats themselves had light armaments and could not fully cover their marines during landings, so the question arose about the creation of a small maneuverable gunboat with enough firepower to support naval landings against enemy infantry, lightly armoured fortifications and fire positions. The LCI (Landing Craft Infantry) designs were used as a basis, with the addition of a 76 mm gun with an armour screen, two twin 40 mm cannons and four twin 20 mm machine guns. The powertrain remained the same as on the LCI – two sets of four engines with 225 hp each, with a total power output of 1800 hp. The artillery ship’s maximum speed was 16 knots. The gunboat was designated LCS (L) – Landing Craft Support (Large). It took just 10 days to prepare such a ship from the landing platform. It could escort its landing party and support it with fire along the coast, and work as an anti-aircraft vessel or provide a smokescreen for the actions of larger ships. The LCS gunboat’s baptism of fire was in the battle for Okinawa. It was later used in operations on the Pacific Ocean. After the end of World War II, the US used these ships in the Korean War and Vietnam, and provided them to allies.