Austal cuts first steel on the Australian Army's new heavy landing craft

Construction of the Australian Army's new Landing Craft Heavy has started in Western Australia, with steel cut on the first vessels in late October, according to an announcement reported on 11 November. Defence industry minister Pat Conroy said the milestone marked the program's move from design into delivery, and the government said the work was on schedule.

The ships are being built by Austal at the Henderson Defence Precinct south of Fremantle. Australian Defence Magazine reported that the government has awarded more than A$5 billion in contracts for eight Landing Craft Heavy and 18 Landing Craft Medium vessels for the army. Grafa, citing the company, put the heavy craft contract at an estimated A$4 billion and the medium craft contract at about A$1.03 billion.

According to Grafa, Austal said it had started fabrication on both vessel classes, and that the first steel was cut with two local industry partners, HD Plasma in Bibra Lake and Pacific Industrial Company in Naval Base. The company's shares rose after the announcement and settled at A$4.61, the outlet reported.

The new heavy landing craft are based on the Damen LST100 design, which was chosen in November 2024 for the army's LAND 8170 Phase 2A requirement and has also been selected by the US Marine Corps, PS News reported. Each ship is about 100 metres long and displaces around 3,900 tonnes, making it nearly eight times heavier and roughly twice as long as the Balikpapan-class craft the army once operated.

PS News said each vessel can carry about 500 tonnes of vehicles and equipment. Example loads cited by the outlet include six M1A2 SEP3 Abrams tanks, 11 Redback infantry fighting vehicles or Boxer reconnaissance vehicles, or 26 HIMARS rocket launchers. The ships are to carry self-defence weapons and modern military communications, and to be able to deploy about 2,000 kilometres from Australia before putting their loads ashore.

Australian Defence Magazine reported that the government describes the program as the largest renewal of the army's littoral capability since the Second World War. It said the craft would help the Australian Defence Force hold potential adversaries at risk and secure strategic terrain by moving combined-arms land forces, including tanks, rocket artillery and armoured vehicles, along coastlines and between islands.

The program fills a gap that has been open for more than a decade. The last of the army's eight Balikpapan-class heavy landing craft was retired in 2014, PS News reported. In January 2026 the army set up a Littoral Manoeuvre Group and a 1st Landing Craft Battalion to prepare crews and units for the new fleet.

The build also matters for Australian shipbuilding beyond the army. PS News noted that the heavy landing craft are the first large steel ships Austal has built in Australia, after a history of aluminium vessels, giving the yard a chance to train a steel shipbuilding workforce before construction of up to eight Mogami-class general purpose frigates for the Royal Australian Navy begins from 2030.

Funding for the yard itself has also moved. Last month the government's National Reconstruction Fund Corporation announced A$245 million in financing for Austal to build and fit out Landing Craft Heavy facilities inside the Australian Marine Complex at Henderson, Australian Defence Magazine reported. PS News said the money would also support the later frigate work and an estimated 780 skilled trades jobs at the site.

The reports did not give a delivery date for the first heavy landing craft. Federal and Western Australian ministers presented the start of construction as part of a plan for continuous naval shipbuilding in the state, alongside the frigate program that is due to follow at the same precinct.