A concept image of Australia's Landing Ship Transport 100 (LST100) vessel to be supplied by Damen Shipyards Group. (Commonwealth of Australia)
Australia's Department of Defence (DoD) has selected Damen Shipyards Group's Landing Ship Transport 100 (LST 100) to meet the Australian Army's requirement for a new heavy landing craft.
The DoD said on 22 November that eight new vessels based on the LST 100 design – and designated by the DoD as Landing Craft Heavy – will be constructed by Australian shipbuilder Austal at its facility in Henderson in Western Australia, subject to contractual negotiations.
It added, “Construction of the first Landing Craft Heavy is expected to start in 2026.”
The DoD said the LST 100 design features a 3,900 tonne displacement, is 100 m long, and 16 m wide. “It will be capable of operating with other vessels to undertake a range of tasks, including troop insertion and extraction, logistics movements, and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief,” it said.
According to the DoD, the new vessel will be capable of carrying more than 500 tonnes of military vehicles and equipment. This includes, it said, six General Dynamics Land Systems Abrams main battle tanks, 11 Hanwha Redback infantry fighting vehicles, or 26 M142 High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARSs).
The DoD said the new vessel will also be equipped with self-defence weapons and military communications systems.
The Landing Craft Heavy procurement is framed by the DoD's Project Land 8710 Phase 2, under which the Australian Army intends to procure landing craft in the 3,000–4,000 tonne category to replace the service's Balikpapan-class vessels, which were decommissioned in 2014.
Under Phase 1 of Project Land 8710, the Australian Army is procuring new medium landing craft to replace its ageing fleet of LCM-8 landing craft.
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