Ship that Debuted with the Nigerian Navy will be Key for Future U.S., Australian Naval Forces

A class of landing vessels designed by a Dutch firm – first built in the United Arab Emirates and debuted by the Nigerian Navy – will become the mainstay of U.S. Marine Corps and Australian Defense Force amphibious operations across the Indo-Pacific Region in the coming decades. Within the last two years, Washington and Canberra have locked onto Damen’s LST-100 designs to meet their demand for littoral maneuvers assets to ferry specialized ground formations to the various archipelagic areas of the Indo-Pacific during a conflict with China, according to separate announcements from the defense contractor. While smaller than the traditional