New Light Landing Craft for the Royal Australian Navy

A computer-generated rendering of the Australian-designed Landing Craft Light to be built by The Whiskey Project Group for the Royal Australian Navy. Credit: The Whiskey Project Group

Naval News – Ben Felton

Sydney-based The Whiskey Project Group will build two new Light Landing Craft, known officially as Landing Craft Lights (LCL), for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).

The two craft, which will start construction next month in Yamba, south of Brisbane, will equip the RAN’s Pacific Support Vessel ADV Reliant from next year.

Reliant is formally based at HMAS Moreton in Brisbane, Queensland and regularly deploys to the South Pacific for regional presence, logistics support, and transport missions. In 2023, its combined crew of commercial seafarers from Teekay Shipping, as well as Australian Army and RAN personnel spent more than 200 days deployed to the region.

After acquiring it in 2022, the RAN quickly equipped ADV Reliant with two Landing Craft Vehicle and Personnel (LCVP) taken from reserve. These will be replaced by the two new Whiskey Project LCLs next year.

In total, the RAN has four LCVPS which were originally built in the 1990s for operations from the Navy’s now-retired amphibious ship HMAS Tobruk (L 50). They’ve also seen service from HMAS Choules (L 100).

While the order from The Whiskey Project Group won’t replace the remaining two LCVPs, the contractual way that they were ordered keeps the door open to that happening in the future.

Naval News understands that the new vessels were ordered through the first contract of a new panel set up by Australia’s Department of Defence called the Defence Marine Support Services Assurance Program (DMAP) Panel.

A panel is a group of companies selected by an Australian government entity, such as Defence, from which products or services can be acquired more directly and faster than through an open tender.

The new LCLs will be 15.4 metres long compared to 13.2 metres for the legacy LCVP. The LCL also has improved seakeeping and is also significantly faster than the LCVP, being capable of 26 knots in a fully loaded configuration. It can carry 4.5 tonnes of cargo, including a light vehicle, containerised stores or up to 30 personnel.

The LCL design is from The Whiskey Project Group’s proven ‘Pioneer’ family of multi-purpose utility craft which is in service with various Australian state government agencies.

The order for LCLs is separate from the Army’s much larger Landing Craft Medium program.