Sunday, December 01, 2013

Australian Designed High Speed Warships for Australian Based US Marines

Jane's Defence Weekly reports that the US Navy is planning to have an Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) to support US Marines based in Darwin ("USN contemplates two-ship ARG concept to support Australia-based marines",  Grace Jean, Jane's Defence Weekly, 29 October 201). This may include the Australian designed JHSVs (Joint High Speed Vessels). The JHSVs are a militarized car ferries, designed by Austral in Western Australia, built built in the USA. The potential for such vessels to be sued for military supply first came to the US Navy's attention when HMAS Jervis Bay was used by the Australian Navy to supply the peacekeeping forces in East Timor.  The RAN will have a similar capability to a US ARG, with its two Canberra-class landing helicopter dock ships., but lacking the US Marines fixed wing aviation combat element.

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