The first LCI(L)s entered service in 1943 chiefly with the Royal Navy (RN) and United States Navy. Early models were capable of carrying 180 troops, this was increased to 210 later. Craft in service with the two navies had some variation according to national preferences. Some 923 LCI were built in ten American shipyards and 211 provided under lend-lease to the Royal Navy. In Royal Navy service they were known as "HM LCI(L)-(pennant number)". During Project Hula, the United States in June and July 1945 secretly transferred 30 LCI(L)s to the Soviet Navy, which designated the type as "desantiye suda" ("landing ship") or "DS"; they saw action against the Japanese after the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan in August 1945, and five – "DS-1" (ex-), "DS-5" (ex-), "DS-9" (ex-), "DS-43" (ex-), and "DS-47" (ex-) – out of 16 involved were lost on 18 August 1945 during the landings on Shumshu. The Soviet Union eventually returned 15 of the surviving LCI(L)s to the United States, all in 1955.