LHDs don’t need to transit the Torres Strait to reach Brisbane or Townsville from their Sydney base and they do regularly operate from Townsville (though the Port of Townsville web home page no longer highlights one). In a benign environment they would send a LHD To lift 1 Bde. I can’t believe though that in a moderate threat environment they would send a LHD and all of the available RAN surface fleet through the Torres Strait and have it stuck on that side of it.How many LPD’s or LHD’s are stationed in Townsville? Or Brisbane?
And 1 Bde won’t have a mechanised battle group to provide so I presume they believe the Phase 2 vessels will be capable of lifting what they can send. The problem I see (apart from that the lift vessels are not even selected yet) is escorting those vessels when they arrive.Project LAND 8710 isn’t about uplifting a mechanised battle group, or even a motorised one. You need LHD’s or LPD’s for that regardless of where they are based.
Again I am just trying to offer reasons for baffling decisions based on what the government has done. A lot of the reasons on Australian threads on this forum boil down to “they are idiots” and “that is what one side of politics does” and “they are trying to save money”.
All three are probably right from time to time, and are always worth considering, but the “saving money” line does not work here (And least in 10 year terms). The Army changes will be very expensive In many ways.
I suspect a lot of the baffling Army stuff is about problems with RAN availability and crewing (not the RAN’s fault).