Austal receives design and build contract for 18 landing craft

A computer-generated visualisation of the landing craft medium (LCM) vessel that Austal is building for the Australian Army. (Austal)

Austal has received the contract to design and build 18 landing craft medium (LCM) vessels for the Australian Army, the company announced in a statement on 18 December.

The AUD1.029 billion (USD680 million) contract is essentially an implementation of the littoral manoeuvre vessel – medium (LMV-M) programme, which is defined under Australia's Project Land 8710 Phase 1A.

The LMV-M programme was conceived to replace the Australian Army's ageing LCM-8 fleet with a more capable platform optimised for littoral operations.

A design selected for LMV-M in 2023 forms the basis of the LCMs now contracted for construction, and Austal confirmed in its 18 December statement that work on the first vessel will commence in 2026 at the Henderson Shipyard in Western Australia.

The final vessel in the contract is scheduled for delivery in 2032, the company added.

All 18 LCMs will be manufactured in steel, and each of them will be capable of transporting loads of up to 80 tonnes, Austal said.

This translates to a payload of up to four High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) units, one main battle tank, or one infantry fighting vehicle and two Bushmaster vehicles.

In addition to the LMV-M programme, Austal will be involved in constructing up to eight LMV-Heavy (LMV-H) craft under Phase 2A of Project Land 8710.

These larger vessels will replace the Royal Australian Navy's (RAN's) Balikpapan-class landing craft heavy that left service in 2014 and the design that has been selected for the LMV-H programme is based on Damen's LST100.