Industry and Defence Partnership is Key to Army’s Future Littoral Capability

As Australia’s strategic area of focus shifts from supporting coalition operations in the Middle East to now prioritising the immediate region across the Indo-Pacific, Army has identified a growing need to modernise its amphibious landing capabilities to meet the evolving requirements of its missions set out in the Army in Motion and Accelerated Warfare doctrines.

Industry will play a central role in delivering this critical new capability – known as LAND 8710 Phase 1A – on an ambitious timeline to ensure Army gets a new, world-leading littoral manoeuvre capability. 

This hotly contested program will see competing bids from Navantia and UGL, and Serco partnering with WA-based CIVMEC, currently responsible for delivering the Arafura class OPVs. Against these two teams, Raytheon Australia’s team of WA-based shipbuilder, Austal and global ship designer, BMT presents the Australian Independent Littoral Manoeuvre Vessel (Australian ILMV) – a solution to meet the Army’s requirements for LAND 8710 Phase 1A. 

For the Australian Defence Force to realise the full operational capability of this new asset, industry must play a key role as a fundamental input into capability from the outset in true partnership with Defence. Bringing this new capability into service will be a complex task – involving both Army and Navy governance, new doctrine and new levels of joint integration and coordination across Defence assets. 

The Raytheon Australia-led team will focus on building a capability partnership with Army and Defence more broadly, drawing upon a demonstrated history of past performance across programs like the SEA 4000 Hobart class destroyers, and now LAND 19 Phase 7B short-range ground-based air defence (SRGBAD) programs to underpin the capability partnership offering of the Australian ILMV solution for Land 8710 Phase 1A. 

Central to this team’s offering is a through-life solution, from ship design and construction, through to introduction into service, and support throughout the lifecycle of the capability. Doing so will leverage the experience and expertise of each partner company to deliver a truly sovereign industry capability with an experienced workforce while delivering a cost effective, low-risk, and mature capability to Army.   

Raytheon Australia Managing Director, Michael Ward explained to Defence Connect, “Over the past 22 years, Raytheon Australia has built a reputation for partnering with Defence to deliver some of the nation’s most multifaceted projects. We know how to bring a ship design to life – from training to operational testing and evaluation, to ship trials and certifications.” 

“Our experience with programs like the Hobart class destroyers and LAND 19 Phase 7B has taught us that this complex endeavour requires an experienced team of industry partners and that is what we are offering,” Ward said.

Ward added, “The Australian ILMV is a mature, resilient, and flexible vessel that has been designed to meet Army’s requirements. It provides a robust, safe, survivable, and capable platform with clear growth and upgrade opportunities that can be realised through the life of the platform.” 

The 47-metre long Australian ILMV has been tailored by BMT based on decades of landing craft design development and optimisation to meet the complex LMV-M requirements identified by Army– namely to optimise stability, speed and endurance, fuel stores, and accommodation for independent and larger, multi-platform expeditionary operations. 

BMT Head of Business Development, Australia and Asia Pacific, Trevor Dove expanded on Mr Wards comments, telling Defence Connect, “Our Australian ILMV is based on BMT’s existing landing craft hull form, a mature design that is confidently in the running for LAND 8710-1A. It is ready to be delivered, with growth margins for a future ready Army.”

The combination of a proven ship designer and prime contractor cannot deliver a ship without a recognised, world leader in shipbuilding – which is where Henderson-based Austal brings valuable experience in delivering more than 47 aluminium and steel-hulled vessels for Defence, with the unique ability to do production design at the shipyard alongside BMT. 

The Australian ILMV team through Austal bring an established and experienced shipbuilding workforce and facilities tailored for the construction of steel vessels for Defence. Austal is ready and capable to deliver the Australian ILMV. 

Austal Chief Executive Officer Paddy Gregg told Defence Connect, “As one of Australia’s largest shipbuilders with an acknowledged world class operation and decades of ADF experience, we have an existing workforce that is trusted to deliver on multiple programs from our Henderson shipyard.”

“Our team has a successful track record in delivering ships every three months and this project will be key to providing a continuous ship building program and preserving local jobs in alignment with the broader National Naval Shipbuilding Plan.” Gregg added.  

The combined experience and expertise of the Australian ILMV team will provide Army with schedule-confidence, low production risk, and a robust sovereign Australian Industry Capability (AIC) plan that will support an average of 275 jobs per year – enhancing Australia’s sovereign design capability and meeting or exceeding the Commonwealth’s defined objectives. 

As part of the broader LAND 8710 program, Army is seeking to replace two amphibious capabilities – the Lighter Amphibious Resupply Cargo 5 ton (LARC-V) through LAND 8710 Phase 1B, and the Landing Craft Mechanised-8 (LCM-8) through LAND 8710 Phase 1A, while future projects will seek a larger LMV-Heavy to replace the Balikpapan class LCHs which were decommissioned in 2012.

The LMV-M will also have much greater range and sea-keeping capabilities than the LCM-8 it will replace. The RFT requires the vessel to be able to self-deploy 1,200nm. Further, it will be capable of operating safely in a sea state 4, to be able to survive in up to sea state 7, while still meeting Army’s beaching requirements.

Michael Ward added, “We are highly confident with not just the capability solution we have in ILMV, but also the capability partnership we are offering to Defence – this will ensure that Defence can realise the full operational capability of these assets and importantly, evergreen the capability to ensure that the vessels are survivable and capable in the existing and future environment.” 

The vessel has been designed with all the safety aspects of a warship and relevant SOLAS requirements, including compartment separation and hull segmentation consistent with DEF(AUST)5000 standards. In addition to its powerful triple-waterjets, the Australian ILMV also features an integral kedge winch to assist it to pull itself off a beach if required.

The Request For Tender for LAND 8710 Phase 1A closed in June 2022, evaluations of competing designs are currently underway, and a contract award is expected in late 2023 or early 2024. The Commonwealth anticipates an initial operational capability (IOC) of two vessels to be declared in 2026, although Raytheon says it can accelerate this timeline if required. 

With up-to 18 LMV-M vessels to be contracted, a fully operational capability is expected to be achieved by 2032.

The Australian Maritime Alliance (AMA) — a joint venture between Serco and Civmec and partnering with Fremantle-based naval architecture and marine engineering consultancy firm IMC - Naval Architects as part of its bid for the Commonwealth’s LAND 8710 Phase 1A project. 

This AMA joint venture team is currently working on the development of an evolved littoral manoeuvre vessel – medium (LMV-M) design, dubbed “Oboe”.

Meanwhile, the Navantia and UGL partnership will draw on the design heritage developed through the Navantia’s LHD Landing Craft platform.