Australia is shifting its defence focus back towards its own region after years of preparing for conflicts in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. The new plan centres on operating closer to home, around Australia’s coastline and across the Pacific, rather than on distant land campaigns. This change aligns with recent defence strategies that emphasise maritime security and regional deterrence over far‑flung expeditionary missions.
Under the deal, the government’s designated strategic shipbuilder will construct eight landing vessels based on a European LST100 design, with work to be completed by 2038 at a major shipyard in Western Australia. Defence expects more than 1100 direct jobs from the program, with more supported along the supply chain. Each ship is designed to move up to 500 tonnes of military hardware, including heavy armour and missile systems, and can transport combinations such as about 200 soldiers with six main battle tanks or nine infantry fighting vehicles between ports, islands and remote coastal areas. The contract announcement also lifted the shipbuilder’s share price by more than 5% in a single day, which signals investor confidence in long term naval work.
This investment appears to be part of a broader response to growing strategic competition in the Indo Pacific, where foreign naval flotillas have already been tracked close to Australia’s economic zone and further deployments seem likely. The new ships appear to give the defence force more flexibility to move troops and equipment quickly across the region, supporting both military operations and potential humanitarian missions. However, because these landing craft have very limited self defence systems, they seem to rely heavily on escorts such as frigates, destroyers and air cover, so their real value in a crisis will depend on how well they are integrated into a wider, well protected fleet.
