Totally agree with you John, but I do not think that hole is going to be plugged until post 2030. It just isn't a high enough priority.
The LCM1e's are good at what they were designed to do but fall short of what the army actually need. I think it was recognised that to provide the capability that was required a rather bitter pill was going to have to be swallowed before things could move forward. Hence the rather grey statements regarding future requirements.
Alf, yes not until the 2030's is probably pretty accurate, (if the project is ever to be revived).
Just a matter of watching the various future updates of the DIIP to include new projects that fall outside of the 'usual' 10 year projections period.
Putting the specific question of the LCH aside for a minute, I'm still interested to see how the Government (and future Governments too), handle the situation as regards to naval shipbuilding in WA.
As I said in an earlier post, the Government is planning to have naval shipbuilding 'hubs' in two locations, Techport SA for continuous 'major' warship and submarine construction and Henderson WA for 'minor' warship construction.
The roadmap for Techport appears to be pretty clear (apart from the 12 submarines), the first 2 OPV's, followed by the 9 Future Frigates starting in 2020, and you could reasonably assume that the eventual replacements for the 3 AWD's will probably follow on from the completion of that project, and so on.
Henderson, Austal has the 21 or so replacements for the Pacific Patrol boats starting soon, I could imagine that future projects for Austal could include the eventual replacements for the Cape class, and so on (plus whatever other foreign naval work they continue to pick up too).
The 'yet' to be announced winner of the OPV project will be busy with the OPV's until around 2030, so what follow that?
Obviously I don't expect the Government to be announcing projects that are not yet on the drawing board, but it is interesting to speculate as to what could follow.
Possibly further OPV work to bring SEA 1180 back to the approx. 20 hulls first mentioned, eg, future replacements for the Mine Warfare and Hydrographic fleets.
And of course I would throw the LCH fleet into the mix too (and why not the replacements for the LCM-1E's?).
And also, depending on the 'growth' capabilities of those facilities, you could eventually look at 'larger' support ships too, Choules and the possible 2nd LSD for example.