Serco Australia has completed an extensive round of tank testing for its provisional landing craft design in preparation for the Land 8710 Phase 1 Request for Tender (RFT).
Land 8710 Phase 1 is the project to design, build and maintain landing craft to enhance ADF’s amphibious capabilities in littoral waters and to enable independent deployment throughout the region.
The tank testing was completed at the Australian Maritime College (AMC) in Launceston and involved the construction of a 1/16th scale model of Serco’s design named ‘Oboe 1’, in recognition of the unique heritage of amphibious operations undertaken by the Australian Army during the Second World War.
The Oboe model then underwent a rigorous series of speed and performance trials utilising the impressive capabilities of the towing tank at the AMC, a specialist institute of the University of Tasmania.
The AMC tank is the largest facility of its kind in Australia and gives valuable data as to how the vessel will behave under differing load conditions and how it will dynamically perform at sea at various speeds and sea-states.
The results of the AMC trials will be fed back into Serco’s design and further refine performance specifications to address ADF requirements.
The staff at AMC are fully independent of Serco’s industry team.
Serco’s says its preparations ahead of the Land 8710 RFT are concurrent with the upcoming delivery of Australia’s new state-of-the-art Antarctic icebreaker, RSV Nuyina.