Australia has accelerated its Land 8710 program for the procurement of new Medium and Large landing craft vessels needed to deliver the transformation of the Australian Army mandated by the Strategic Defence Review published 15 months ago.

The Army was directed to re-organize into a force focused on littoral manoeuvre and long-range strike. To achieve that vision, each of the 3 manoeuvre brigades of the Army will be supported by a “Littoral Lift Group” of landing crafts. The groups will stand up in Brisbane, Cairns, and Darwin. The groups will eventually field a fleet of 26 landing craft in total, 18 of them Medium, of around 500 tonnes, and 8 Heavy, which will displace between 3,000 to 5,000 tonnes.

Land 8710 Phase 1 concerns the delivery of the Medium landing craft and is being accelerated by 2 years compared to plans precedent to the Strategic Review. The first new craft is to be delivered in 2026 and the government intends to bring Phase 2, for the Heavy crafts, forward by 7 years, with the first one to be delivered in 2028.

The Littoral Manoeuvre Vessel – Medium (LMV-M) is circa 60 meters long and capable of carrying about 90 tonnes of cargo, which means it can move one M1A2 SePv3 MBT, or a REDBACK IFV and 2 BUSHMASTERs, or 4 M-142 HIMARS. The vessel will be able to “carry an 80-tonne payload in excess of 2,000 nautical miles at “the top” of Sea State 4 and still hold 20 per cent fuel reserves”, according to Birdon. The design of the LMV-M has been developed by Birdon Group and will be built by Austal in Henderson.

The project has a cost of 2 billion Australian dollars (USD1.3 billion). The 18 new craft will replace the replace the Australian Army's current fleet of 15 much smaller and less capable LCM-8 crafts operated by the 35th Water Transport Squadron. Birdon Group started building a prototype of its LMV-M design in early 2023 working with Echo Marine Group, another ship-builder firm based in Henderson.

It was only later, in November 2023, that Birdon’s entry was formally selected by the Commonwealth’s government and Austal became the shipbuilder of choice for the program, within the Australian government’s wider commitment to grow shipbuilding capability in the country and sustain a continuous drumbeat of constructions. Under the Strategic Shipbuilding Agreement (SSA) between the government and Austal, it is planned that the shipbuilder will also be in charge of the construction of the LMV-Heavy, once the design is selected.

These much larger vessels will formally replace the Royal Australian Navy's (RAN's) BALIKAPAN-class landing craft heavy which however are long gone, having left service already in 2014. Several firms are proposing designs for the LMV-H, including Navantia Australia, Serco, and a team of BMT, Raytheon and Austal.

The “H” vessel will be more akin to a Landing Ship Tank, or indeed to the new Landing Ship Medium pursued by the US Marine Corps. The LMV vessels will also be supported by a new fleet of Amphibious Vehicle Logistics, amphibious trucks able to navigate over beaches and through waterways. These will replace the existing Lighter, Amphibious, Resupply, Cargo vehicle (LARC-V) from 2026.