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Australia Tests HIMARS Rocket Launcher On Amphibious Assault Ship HMAS Canberra And Landing Craft.
The Australian Defence Force has embarked an M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, on the amphibious assault ship HMAS Canberra and one of her landing craft in Sydney Harbour as part of a new series of sea trials. The move marks a practical step toward integrating long range rocket artillery with Australia’s amphibious force, tightening the link between sea based maneuver and land attack options in the Indo Pacific
On 2 December 2025, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) quietly marked a turning point in its long-range fires posture by embarking the M142 High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) aboard the amphibious assault ship HMAS Canberra and one of her landing craft in Sydney Harbour. Conducted as part of the system’s introduction into service, the activity went beyond a simple load trial and formed a key step in validating how rocket artillery can move with amphibious forces in contested littoral environments. In an Indo-Pacific context where dispersed fires and rapid manoeuvre between sea and shore are increasingly central to deterrence, the ability to move HIMARS by sea is strategically significant. The sea trials, designed to confirm the platform’s transportability and sustainment at sea, were carried out, as reported by the Australian Department of Defence.
Beyond the technical success of loading and moving the launcher, the Sydney Harbour activity signals that Australian HIMARS will not be confined to inland training areas or fixed garrisons (Picture source: Australian MoD)
HIMARS itself is now a core element of the Australian Army’s emerging long-range fires architecture. Mounted on a 6×6 wheeled chassis, the launcher can fire guided rockets out to tens of kilometres and, in future, longer-range precision strike missiles, while remaining mobile enough to reposition rapidly after firing. Australia has ordered 42 launchers under a Foreign Military Sales case with the United States, with initial systems already delivered and operated by 54th Siege Battery within the re-raised 10th Brigade, the Army’s long-range fires formation. The Sydney Harbour trials therefore represent the next phase in making this capability not only deployable by air, which has already been tested, but also fully integrated with the maritime component of the ADF.
During the activity in Sydney, a HIMARS launcher, together with its dedicated resupply vehicle and trailer, was embarked on HMAS Canberra, the Royal Australian Navy’s flagship landing helicopter dock, and then moved onto one of her LHD landing craft for further testing. The focus was to verify practical aspects of sea transportability: manoeuvring the launcher within the ship, securing it for sea states encountered in littoral operations, and demonstrating that the resupply elements could be embarked and moved as a complete long-range fires package. HMAS Canberra is designed to embark more than a thousand troops and their vehicles, and to project them ashore using landing craft and helicopters, giving the ADF the means to position HIMARS batteries close to key maritime chokepoints, coastal approaches and island objectives.
From a geostrategic perspective, the trial fits squarely within Australia’s shift towards a more littoral, archipelago-focused posture outlined in recent strategic reviews. The ability to transport HIMARS by Canberra-class ships, LHD landing craft and, in future, the new generation of Army landing craft under the LAND 8710 program, allows long-range fires to be dispersed across coastal regions and potentially onto strategically located islands in the broader Indo-Pacific arc. Instead of being tied to fixed bases or major ports, launchers can be embarked, moved at sea, offloaded to austere beaches, conduct fire missions in support of joint forces, and then be re-embarked or shifted to another location. This complicates an adversary’s targeting calculus and underpins concepts such as expeditionary basing, sea-denial along key sea lanes, and the defence of Australia’s northern approaches.
The trials underscore the drive towards a genuinely joint ADF, where land-based fires are integrated with naval platforms to generate effects from and across the littoral. Major Ben Hutchinson, commanding 54th Siege Battery, highlighted the importance of rehearsing such movements in seemingly benign conditions at Fleet Base East so that they can be executed under operational pressure. For Army gunners, this means understanding how to operate within the constrained spaces of a warship and its landing craft; for Navy crews, it means treating HIMARS and its support vehicles as a routine part of the amphibious load. In future operations, this combination could enable rapid deployment of rocket artillery to remote or lightly developed islands, where traditional port infrastructure is absent but the need for credible, long-range strike in support of allies and partners is acute.
Beyond the technical success of loading and moving the launcher, the Sydney Harbour activity signals that Australian HIMARS will not be confined to inland training areas or fixed garrisons. By proving that the system can embark on Canberra-class ships alongside its sustainment vehicles and operate as part of a broader amphibious task group, the ADF is laying the foundations for a flexible littoral strike capability tailored to the Indo-Pacific’s island geography. As the long-range fires brigade grows and new landing craft enter service, the ability to move HIMARS seamlessly between air, land and sea will be central to Australia’s efforts to deter coercion, reassure regional partners and respond quickly to crises across strategic islands and coastal zones in its near region.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.