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The shipbuilding firm’s proposal to deliver a next generation amphibious vehicle to the Australian Army has fallen short.
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The Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group (CASG) has informed Navantia Australia that it has not been down selected for the Commonwealth government’s LAND 8710 (Phase 1) Capability Element 2 (CE2) project — an $800 million program to develop a new amphibious vehicle (AV) to replace the Army’s Lighter, Amphibious Resupply, Cargo – 5 tonne vehicle (LARC-V).
The shipbuilding company submitted a joint bid with Rheinmetall Defence Australia, announced in June at the annual Land Forces conference.
The companies had planned to combine their resources to develop a “fast, formidable and future-proof” amphibious vehicle design, leveraging Navantia’s naval shipbuilding experience and Rheinmetall’s logistics vehicle manufacturing capability.
“Navantia Australia received encouraging feedback from CASG but was not down selected for LAND 8710 Ph1 CE2,” a Navantia spokesperson told Defence Connect.
“We accept the decision and have offered our engineering capabilities to support the successful candidates.”
ASX-listed shipbuilding giant Austal remains in the running for LAND 8710 Phase 1 CE2.
Austal launched its bid in June, offering to design, build and sustain the locally-developed fleet.
Defence is yet to release the request for tender (RFT) for LAND 8710 Phase 1 CE1 — a second element of the project aimed at developing independent landing craft to replace the Army’s current Landing Craft Mechanised (LCM-8) vessels.
Navantia Australia has confirmed it would respond to the RFT, expected to be released later this year.
“We remain committed to supporting sovereign Australian defence capability and continuing to be an Australian industry partner to the Australian Defence Force,” the Navantia spokesperson added.
The two separate fleets to be procured under the program are expected to provide independent shore-to-shore, ship-to-shore, and over-the-shore capabilities to better manoeuvre and sustain the ADF in littoral and riverine environments.
The project is expected to achieve initial operating capability by 2026.
[Related: Austal to bid for $800m LAND 8710 programs]
Charbel Kadib
News Editor – Defence and Security, Momentum Media
Prior to joining the defence and aerospace team in 2020, Charbel was news editor of The Adviser and Mortgage Business, where he covered developments in the banking and financial services sector for three years. Charbel has a keen interest in geopolitics and international relations, graduating from the University of Notre Dame with a double major in politics and journalism. Charbel has also completed internships with The Australian Department of Communications and the Arts and public relations agency Fifty Acres.
