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Opinion: The Defence Strategic Review outlined a vision of a future Australian Army more focused on littoral operations to Australia’s north. Nowhere is this clearer than in the unambiguous DSR recommendation to “accelerate and expand” the delivery of littoral manoeuvre vessels under Project LAND 8710, writes Michael Ward, managing director, Raytheon Australia.
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In 2022, Raytheon Australia announced its teaming with Austal and BMT to deliver the new Australian independent littoral manoeuvre vessel, or ILMV, for the Australian Army under LAND 8710-1A.
Based on a proven design and carefully tailored for the Australian environment, the Australian ILMV is a world-class, future-ready capability and sovereign solution aligned with the Army’s new and complex littoral manoeuvre requirements.
We have now expanded our collaboration agreement to include the Army’s future program for a “heavy” variant of the littoral manoeuvre vessels to be sought under LAND 8710-2.
I believe we have the best team to deliver these complex requirements for Army. My team at Raytheon Australia have decades of experience in leading and delivering complex programs Defence and maritime projects on time and budget. Designing, building, certifying, and delivering an entirely new capability for Army will be a complex endeavour, and will require an experienced prime contractor to assure success.
Austal are a proven shipbuilder for the Australian Defence Force and have the skilled people, facilities, and infrastructure to accelerate delivery of the ILMV now. Austal have been delivering up to four similar sized ships a year to the Royal Australian Navy and are ready now to deliver for Army.
We have what we think are the best and lowest risk designs for Army’s requirements. With over a decade of development and testing, the BMT ship designs meet or exceed all the critical safety, speed, endurance, and load capacity needs of Army. By leveraging BMT’s mature designs we avoid the serious risks involved in designing such complex ships from scratch.
No one should underestimate the complexity involved in LAND 8710. The ships themselves have extremely complex safety and capability requirements and taking on an unproven design would be a major risk. The project also requires a team that has experience in leading and delivering on complex projects; that has experience in all aspects of ship design, production, seaworthiness and landworthiness certification, and delivery; that can partner to deliver a whole capability solution, not just a ship.
Raytheon Australia, Austal, and BMT are ready to deliver for Army.
Our team brings together the strongest prime, the most mature and proven design, the best build solution, and delivers the best way to help Army field real capability quickly. We understand the complexities of LAND 8710 and are ready now to meet the challenge.
Michael Ward is the managing director of Raytheon Australia and vice president of Raytheon Technologies Australia.
