Shipbuilder Civmec and marine services specialist Serco have joined forces in pursuit of the LAND 8710 Phase 1A program that will deliver the next generation of littoral maneuver vessels for the Australian Army.
As revealed, the team optimized the design of the new ‘Oboe’ littoral maneuver vessel medium (LMV-M) over the past year, refining it to meet the needs of the ADF.
Serco Defence managing director Clint Thomas AM, CSC, said the alliance demonstrates the importance of delivering local industry resilience, facilitating workforce and workload predictability, and providing assured supply chain access to build a sustained Australian shipbuilding sector.
“With Serco and Civmec’s complementary capabilities and shared community values for realizing the sustained growth of Australia’s Shipbuilding Industry, our alliance is set to deliver proven benefits through uplifting Western Australian industry capabilities, matching Serco’s global shipbuilding expertise and reach with Civmec’s superlative workforce skills, proven technology and infrastructure capacity,” Thomas said.
The team is the latest contender in Australia’s LAND 8710 program. Navantia, and a team composed of Raytheon Australia, Austal and BMT, have already revealed their designs for the program.
The project includes the development of a new amphibious vehicle (AV) to replace the Army’s lighter amphibious resupply cargo 5 ton vehicle (LARC-V), and independent landing craft (ILC) to replace the current landing craft mechanized (LCM-8) vessels.
Australia launched the tender for the replacement of LARC-V and LCM-8 in February 2021 and plans to invest up to A$800 million to acquire the new fleets of amphibious vehicles and landing craft.
“Civmec’s Henderson facility offers unmatched shipbuilding capacity to deliver for the Commonwealth’s naval shipbuilding programs and combined with our new state-of-the-art ship assembly hall, we operate the largest fabrication workshops in Australia,” Civmec’s CEO Pat Tallon said.
“This project builds on our experience gained through the ongoing delivery of the SEA1180 Arafura Class Offshore Patrol Vessel program. The LMV-M platform will allow us to continue to demonstrate our innovative approach to shipbuilding,” he added.
