Raytheon, Austal and BMT to pursue LAND8710 Ph.2

Canberra-based Raytheon, Perth-based Austal and Melbourne-based BMT Group have announced that a heavy variant of the Independent Littoral Manoeuvre vessel (ILMV) they have developed for Phase 1 of project LAND 8710 will be offered for the forthcoming Phase 2.

In 2022, the three partners announced their teaming agreement to deliver the Australian ILMV for the Australian Army under Project LAND8710 Ph.1A. Since then, the Defence Strategic Review has outlined a vision of a future Australian Army more focused on littoral operations to Australia’s north and recommended unambiguously that Defence should ‘accelerate and expand’ the delivery of Littoral Manoeuvre Vessels under Project LAND8710.

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, says Raytheon Australia Managing Director Michael ward.

“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 LAND8710-2,” he said in a statement on LinkedIn.

“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 … 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 is a proven shipbuilder for the ADF, he points out, and has the skilled people, facilities, and infrastructure to accelerate delivery of the ILMV now. Austal has been delivering up to four similar-sized ships a year to the RAN and is ready now to deliver for Army.

“We have what we think are the best and lowest risk designs for Army’s requirements,” he said. “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 LAND8710, Ward adds. 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.