LAND 8710 Independent Landing Craft (ILC)
Phase 1 Capability Element 1 (CE1)
To paraphrase Viscount Edward Grey, if the Army is to be a projectile fired from the sea to the land, a new connector is needed. The LCM-8 and LARC-V will be replaced through Project LAND 8170 Phase 1 CE1 and CE2 respectively.
Land 8710 Army Littoral Manoeuvre promises to replace the Army’s archaic LCM-8 and LARC-5 small boats. The LCM - Landing Craft Mechanised - entered service 1967. The replacement of the venerable LCM-8s and LARC-Vs is long overdue. They have been in service for many decades and are worn out. One of the more important tasks for which they are used is to move troops, vehicles, equipment and stores from a ship to the shore. The military term for the vehicle performing this task is a ‘ship-to-shore connector’. Without a new ship-to-shore connector, the ADF will be unable to develop the amphibious promise of the Royal Australian Navy’s LHDs, the Canberra and Adelaide. There are numerous like for like but better replacement options available which no the Land 8710 team was examining.
At one time the Army’s establishment contained an armada of boats, ships, lighters and other watercraft, rather than the 20 plus boats that remain today. The highpoint for the fleet was the Second World War when soldiers operated over 1,900 vessels of all types in waters from Bougainville to Borneo. Seven were sunk by enemy action. During Vietnam the Army’s fleet of LSMs transported heavy stores between Sydney and Vung Tau. On a supply run up a Vietnamese river the crew of the Clive Steele, fought off a Viet Cong rocket attack. More recently, LCMs supported operations in Bougainville, Timor-Leste and Iraq.
The LCM-8 was the backbone of the Australian Army’s waterborne capability. As highlighted by the United States Army, landing craft provide: "inter – and intra-theatre transportation of personnel and material, delivering cargo from advanced bases and deep-draft strategic sealift ships to harbours, inland waterways, remote and unimproved beaches and coastlines, and denied or degraded ports."
This capability will be essential when operating in the Indo-Pacific. Introduced in 1965, the LCM-8 can carry up to 54 tonnes of cargo and has a maximum speed of 9.5 knots when fully loaded. With a draft of 1.5 metres it can access most waterways, while mounted machine guns provide a limited defensive capability. However, the LCM-8 is an extremely dated platform and is limited in its ability to support the Army’s future needs.
It is unable to transport Army’s M1 Abrams main battle tank and, though it is capable of transporting Army’s new LAND 121 Phase 3B trucks and the oncoming Rheinmetall Boxer, the increased weight of contemporary combat systems will put additional strain on this legacy platform. The relatively small number of these craft is also of concern, restricting Army’s ability to sustain concurrent efforts and move force elements. The craft’s relatively slow speed and open-topped design also leave it ill-suited to conducting riverine operations, with its steel hull providing only limited protection to the oat’s occupants. Thus, Army’s existing LCM-8 capability is not sufficient to meet the challenges of operating in the Indo-Pacific. This is also true of Army’s other watercraft.
To date, the operational usage by Army of its watercraft has been nearly entirely limited to the support of land forces ashore, namely the movement of personnel, vehicles and stores either from a ship to shore or for a coastal transfer.
The 2020 Defence Strategic Update identifies Australia’s primary area of strategic interest as a band of territory beginning in the north-eastern Indian Ocean, passing through South-East Asia and Papua New Guinea and terminating in the islands of the South-West Pacific. This is Australia’s neighborhood and it is dominated by thousands of islands, lengthy coastlines and populations that live alongside or near the sea.
The Morrison Government will invest up to $800 million to acquire new fleets of Australian-built amphibious vehicles and landing craft that will be able to transport land forces with enhanced speed and protection. Minister for Defence, Senator the Hon Linda Reynolds CSC said 03 February 2021 the Army Littoral Manoeuvre – Light project, LAND 8710 Phase 1 will strengthen the ADF’s amphibious capabilities.
“Today’s announcement delivers on this Government’s objectives, set out in the 2020 Force Structure Plan, to enhance the ADF’s amphibious capabilities, especially in Australia’s territorial waters and the near region,” Minister Reynolds said. “These new vessels, introduced from 2026, will be larger, faster, and better protected to support ADF operations".
With two separate fleets to be acquired, the watercraft will 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. Through the project, an Independent Landing Craft will be delivered to replace the Army’s existing LCM-8 vessels. This will present opportunities for Australian industry in the detailed design, build, maintenance and support elements of the project.
While it’s unlikely the Lighter, Amphibious, Resupply, Cargo vehicle (LARC-V) will markedly change shape, the Landing Craft Mechanized, Mark 8 (LCM-8), which is also being replaced under the $800 million program Land 8710-1, is likely to change significantly, according to DG Platforms Brigadier Jeremy King. Brigadier King said the replacements, to be introduced into service from 2026, would bring amphibious capabilities into the modern era.
“The LCM-8 replacement will see a fundamental change to Army littoral operations,” Brigadier King said. “It’s called the Independent Landing Craft (ILC) and the ‘I’ is there for a reason – so it can project out into the region, without needing to be transported. It will carry everything up to, and including, a tank, and with Army bringing heavier vehicles into service it will match those payloads."
The intention is to launch the ILC from Darwin and Townsville into the near region to support forces operating in littoral and riverine environments.
Defence Minister Linda Reynolds said the new vessels would deliver on the objectives set out in the 2020 Force Structure Plan. She said they would allow defence to “remain engaged with regional security partners”, support humanitarian assistance missions in the Indo-Pacific region and quickly and effectively deploy domestically. “We saw the importance of Army water transport on Operation Bushfire Assist 19-20, evacuating Australians to safety off beaches and delivering much-needed supplies,” Senator Reynolds said.
BMT offered the Caimen 90 for Land 8710. The Caimen 90 was designed by BMT and is able to operate at high speeds with heavy payloads, allowing faster amphibious offload from host ship compared with slower, more conventional landing craft. "BMT is offered world leading capability in landing craft vessels to the Australian Army with the Caimen 90,” BMT Defence and Security Managing Director, Peter Behrendt said. "A variant of this vessel is already being built internationally, which shows it is a proven hull form and design,” Mr Behrendt said.
Austal Australia would submit a proposal to design, build and sustain the Australian Army’s next generation of littoral manoeuvre capability under the Department of Defence’s LAND 8710 (Phase 1) project. “Austal is Australia’s proven defence prime contractor that has designed, constructed and sustained multiple naval shipbuilding programs for Australia, and export markets around the world, for more than 20 years,” Austal Limited Chief Executive Officer Paddy Gregg said 01 June 2021. “Drawing upon this local strength in defence capability, including Australia’s largest team of naval architects, Austal is confident of offering an exceptional new littoral manoeuvre capability for the Australian Army that may be relied upon throughout its working life.”
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