The Government has signed two key contracts for Landing Craft Heavy (LCH) and Landing Craft Medium with Austal Defence Australia.
“This contract represents another significant investment in Australia’s sovereign shipbuilding capability - and Austal Defence Australia is ready to deliver these highly capable vessels to support the ADF’s operational requirements," Austal Chief Executive Officer, Paddy Gregg, said.
“While Austal’s US business has traditionally accounted for a large share of our defence order book in recent years, this contract reflects the growing strength and success of Austal’s Australian operations — and Australian industry — within the national shipbuilding and sustainment enterprise. This LCH construction contract balances out the split and provides greater geographic diversity of earnings. It also provides earnings and employment stability for the next 12 years.”
The government is investing $4 billion into Army’s future LCH littoral fleet through a new contract covering the scope, timeline and material requirements that will see eight vessels built at WA’s Henderson Shipyard.
These vessels, designed by Damen Naval and based on the Damen LST100 design, will be capable of transporting more than 500 tonnes of long range precision strike weapons and other units by sea. The agreement is under the Strategic Shipbuilding Agreement (SSA) with the Commonwealth of Australia.
The contract signed has an overall Australian Contract Expenditure of over 60 per cent – supporting local and regional businesses and incentivising industry investments in workforce, supply chains and infrastructure.
The first tranche of these vessels will be constructed at the Common User Facility (CUF), before the program moves to a permanent location.
As part of the Landing Craft Heavy program, the Government will also make available an initial $30 million for the Western Australian Government to commence early works for interim replacement facilities for non-Defence industries that utilise the Henderson CUF to ensure they are afforded ongoing access to infrastructure.
Construction has been scheduled to commence in 2026, with the eighth and final vessel scheduled for delivery to the Commonwealth in 2038.
The federal and WA state governments say they are committed to 'minimising the impacts' to non-Defence industries at the CUF as work continues to deliver the Defence Precinct at Henderson.
“The Landing Craft program will further strengthen our sovereign industry, supporting continuous shipbuilding in Western Australia and ensuring Australia has the industrial capability and depth to keep Australians safe," Minister for Defence Industry, Pat Conroy, said.
“The combined delivery of landing craft capabilities is expected to create more than 1,100 direct and 2,000 indirect jobs, providing a sustained pipeline of work that incentivises defence industry investment in skills, supply chains and infrastructure.”
This follows the government and Austal Defence Australia having signed a $1 billion contract to design, build and deliver 18 Landing Craft Medium vessels.
Together, these milestones for the LCH and Landing Craft Medium represent the largest recapitalisation of Army’s littoral capability since the Second World War.
The expanded littoral fleet is central to Army’s rapid transformation under the 2024 National Defence Strategy (NDS) and aims to significantly enhance the ADF’s ability to hold adversaries at risk, project and sustain capabilities and deny access to Australia’s northern approaches.
“These contracts will support thousands of direct and indirect jobs, while also equipping the Australian Army with the capabilities it needs for littoral manoeuvre and to undertake long range land and maritime strike," Minister for Defence Richard Marles said.
The LCH vessels will support the Australian Defence Force (ADF) in amphibious operations, logistics, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief across Australia’s region of interest.
Austal Defence Australia offered examples of the LCH's capacity, claiming that it could hold, along with personnel, six M1A2SEP3 Abrams Tanks or nine Redback Infantry Fighting Vehicles. The vessels are approximately 100 metres long.
Austal has also noted that in addition, Austal USA is presently constructing up to 12 smaller Landing Craft Utility vessels for the US Navy at its Mobile, Alabama, US shipyard.