During the Suez crisis, she was used to land the transport for 45 Commando which was part of the first-ever operational helicopter assault. In 1964, she was converted into a dedicated helicopter training ship; this involved converting the deck in front of the superstructure into a landing platform. There was no hangar and minimal support facilities – the ship was essentially a platform for practising landings at sea, and a deck to transport helicopters on.[1] In 1967, the Lofoten was replaced in this role by the purpose built .
Lofoten was again laid up in 1969 to be used as an accommodation ship and as a support vessel, being docked alongside nuclear submarines undergoing refit at Rosyth Royal Dockyard (at least from 1981 onwards), before finally being sold for scrapping in 1993. At that time, another LST,, was also used as a support vessel for nuclear submarine refits at Rosyth, being undertaken in the second of the two nuclear qualified docks.