Page 108 - Australian Defence Magazine Sep-Oct 2022

108 LAND WARFARE LITTORAL MANOEUVRE
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
BIRDON GROUP
Birdon Group is an Australian small to medium enterprise (SME) specialising in maritime engineering, with over forty years of experience in Australia and a decade in the international defence market.
The company has the pedigree of delivering specialised vessels for the Australian Army and in May it won a $37 million contract from the Royal Australian
Navy to build a replacement vessel for the
“The partnership between Navantia Australia and UGL offers combined experience in collaborating with both Navy and Army, to deliver superior results,” Na- vantia Australia Managing Director Israel Lozano com- mented. “Together we offer Defence a highly compliant design, cost effective delivery, surety of supply, contribu- tion to the Naval Shipbuilding Plan and maximum Aus-
brigantine Sail Training Ship (STS) Young Endeavour. It is also a major supplier to the US Army, US Navy and US Coast Guard and other international defence forces.
Some of the work done for Army in Aus- tralia includes the refurbishment of the existing LCM-8 fleet and Balikpapan-class Landing Craft Heavy (LCH) vessels, the design and construction of bridge erec- tion propulsion boats, regional patrol craft and utility workboats. It has also upgraded LCM2000 vessels sold to the Israeli Navy.
“WITH TWO SEPARATE FLEETS TO BE ACQUIRED, THE WATERCRAFT WILL PROVIDE INDEPENDENT SHORE-TO- SHORE, SHIP-TO-SHORE, AND OVER-THE-SHORE CAPABILITIES TO BETTER MANOEUVRE AND SUSTAIN THE ADF IN LITTORAL AND RIVERINE ENVIRONMENTS”
tralian content.”
UGL Managing Director Doug Moss
said his company will bring its Australian heavy manufacturing expertise and Aus- tralian sovereign capability to the LMV-M bid, enhancing Australia’s naval shipbuild- ing capability.
“The Kodal LMV-M benefits from les- sons learned from the design, construc- tion and operation of the (Canberra- class) LHD LCM-1E Landing Craft. At the same time, and in order to eliminate risks, the design has been assessed by Lloyd’s Register and has undertaken as- surance activities. The hull was tank tested for more than 100 hours, achiev- ing results that validated our design with
“Birdon has the scale, experience, bal-
ance sheet and expertise to be the Aus-
tralian Defence littoral capability provider
for the whole of Land Programs 8710 and 8702, but small enough to ensure that every vehicle and vessel is world- class from a quality and capability perspective,” the com- pany said in a statement on the ICN Gateway.
high degree of correlation of the design’s performance expectations; meaning it will deliver what we promise,” a Navantia Australia spokesperson said in response to ADM’s questions.
“The LMV-M will be built in a dedicated shipyard facil- ity at the Western Australian Government’s unique Com- mon User Facility (CUF) in Henderson using a mix of UGL and other local Western Australian service providers. This is an important schedule risk mitigation, as it eliminates resourcing and facility conflicts caused by other onsite Commonwealth and commercial shipbuilding or resource sector activities Our approach also provides important re- turn on investment in the CUF to the Western Australian and Federal Governments.” ■
Land 8710 Phase 3 will seek to acquire a riverine manoeuvre capability
LANDING CRAFT AUSTRALIA
Navantia Australia and UGL formally announced a team- ing arrangement for Land 8710 Phase 1 at the Indo Pacific exhibition in Sydney in May.
Now known as Landing Craft Australia, the joint venture followed the unveiling by Navantia Australia at the Land Forces exhibition in June 2021, of an Australian-designed Landing craft named Kodal – a Torres Strait Islander word meaning crocodile.
NAVANTIA AUSTRALIA