Questions are being raised on the building of landing craft in Spain. The craft are to be built at Navantia and will complement two new Canberra-class Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) amphibious assault ships currently under construction for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).
These landing craft, to be acquired under Phase 3 of Joint Project 2048, will enable the Canberra-class LHD ships to conduct operations over the shore where there are no fixed port facilities.
The Australian Minister for Defence, the Hon Joel Fitzgibbon made the announcement on May 11. He said the landing craft would be able to lift heavy equipment which might be embarked on the ships, including the new M1A1 Abrams tank in service with the Australian Army.
The building of these landing craft should be a fairly straightforward project and questions are now being raised as to why the vessels should be built in Spain. It has been suggested that Australia should build the craft to Navantia's design.
In addition, it has been said that opportunities like these should be ideally used to expand Australian innovation in the design and construction of vessels.
