Further to ADM’s previous ruminations on this subject defence minister Stephen Smith recently responded to questions on the possible lease or purchase of an ex-RN Bay Class landing vessel.
“We are transitioning to a number of large amphibious landing dock vessels.
“They’re being built in Spain and our timetable for putting those amphibious landing and helicopter dock vessels into operation is the middle of this decade, so 2015.
“In the meantime, we have to transition to that and so there is a requirement to look at our existing capability, which we have, and decide whether we need to add to that capability as we make the transition to the new landing dock vessels.
“In the course of coming to office, the Cameron Government effected, and Dr Fox effected, a UK defence security review.
“As a consequence of that, some naval assets are available for disposal by the UK.
“We want to have a very close look at whether it’s appropriate for us to either lease or buy one of the so-called Bay Class landing vessels.
“And I’m not proposing to put a cost on that, we just want to explore whether it is a sensible thing for Australia to do to acquire one of those assets.
“The only suggestion I’ve made to Dr Fox is that we get our officials together to see whether it might be appropriate for us to lease or buy one of the Bay Class amphibious landing vessels.”
The comments come in the wake of the first AUKMIN meeting in Australia where the defence and foreign ministers from Australia and the UK had a good chat about the state of the world.