One of our Spanish members said that Natavia wanted a 3rd LHD much more than the RAN did. I would imagine they are desperate to do a deal, spains finances are on the brink, I wouldn't be surprised if they were offering cost price, clearance sale to us.
I would imagine the RAN is trying to wrangle a third LHD. It looks like they have the money available for it, now they need to convince everyone they need a 3rd LHD instead of a measly sealift ship. The LHD haven't seemed to have copped any media flack, no media about build stuff ups (unlike the AWD), seem popular with the military, and have local build elements popular with voters and the economy.
If we were to go a 10-15,000t ship what would we get? A bay? Uk built? A Spanish build Galicia? Even with that two Bays or a LHD and a bay won't give us the amphibious capability we require (and would most likely cost the same possibly with less local build). There will be times (admittedly rarely) where we needed a 3rd LHD. 3 secures our capability. While LPD's are often available, there is only 1 other LHD of Canberra’s size and that’s in inconveniently located Spain. The UK will be short in amphibious capability for the next few decades, US will be tightening its belt and less able and likely to deploy USMC amphibs on issues that affect Australia socially or politically (not physically threaten her soverenty). Can anyone honestly tell me the US would love to step into some SEA/pacific civil unrest to stop hundreds of thousands of refugee migrants ending up in Australia? That leaves us with no backup plan, and us to clean up messes on our own doorsteps. We need that capability to act to prevent and secure our region against instability particularly contagious instability. How confident are we that Indonesia won't do a Egypt, Syria?
