They transport vehicles, cargo and personnel from Mistral-class amphibious assault ships to shore.

Concept design of the EDA-R began in 2000 at Constructions industrielles de la Méditerranée (CNIM) then was abandoned in 2003 and relaunched in 2008 with the full-scale Landing Catamaran (L-Cat).

During the development stage, one prototype was built by Gamelin Shipyard and tested during an autonomous transfer from Saint-Malo to the Military port of Toulon.

[4] In October 2016, CNIM revealed a new variant called L-CAT shore-to-shore, designed for smaller navies that do not have larger amphibious ships to deploy landing craft from.

The L-CAT shore-to-shore can carry enough fuel to travel 1,000 nautical miles (1,900 km; 1,200 mi) without payload, or 800 nmi (1,500 km; 920 mi) with a 100-ton payload, and be able to move at 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph) empty and 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) with a full load.