Australia's Canberra Class LHDs

In May of 2006, "Australia Issues Official Tender for A$ 2.0B Large Amphibious Ships Program" covered Australia's decision to expand its naval expeditionary capabilities, and replace HMAS Manoora and Kanimbla with substantially larger and more capable modern designs featuring strong air support.

Navantia and Tenix offered a 27,000t LHD design that resembled the Strategic Projection Ship (Buque de Proyeccion Estrategica) under construction for the Spanish Navy. The DCNS-Thales Australia team, meanwhile, proposed a variation of the 21,300t Mistral Class that is serving successfully with the French Navy.

Navantia's larger design eventually win, giving the Spanish firm an A$11 billion clean sweep of Australia's "Air Warfare Destroyer" and LHD programs.

These 5 ships will be the core of Australia's future surface navy, and October 2007 has now seen multi-billion contracts signed for both sets of ships. DID does wonder, however – can the divergent figures given for the Canberra Class LHD contract be sorted out?...

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