For whatever reason, RAN wasn’t interested in replacing it’s Balikpapan Class and yet Army needed the support of such a capability. Government directed that we would pivot to a substantially greater littoral maneuver capability and Army is stepping up to provide it.I understand that, but I have to question the logic behind taking away what is essentially a naval function from the....uhhh....navy.
Battlefield helo transfer from raaf to army is a relevant example, but should we then transfer c27s? C130s? C17s? I think there is a limit as to what is logical, and I think the LC-Ms are on one side, and the 4000t LSTs (not LCHs) are a country mile on the other side.
Perhaps it’s as simple as Army can manning-wise and RAN can’t?
But I am sure like any new capability, a crawl, walk, run approach will be employed while the capability is worked up.