US military rapidly building up Australia's northern bases amid South China Sea tensions

Record ID: 1830336

  • Title: US military rapidly building up Australia's northern bases amid South China Sea tensions
  • Date: 26th July 2024
  • Summary: TINDAL, AUSTRALIA (JULY 17, 2024) (REUTERS) AERIAL VIEW OF ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE TINDAL AIR BASE VARIOUS OF PILOTS FLYING AIRCRAFT AERIAL VIEW OF TINDAL AIR BASE WITH CONSTRUCTIONS WORKS VARIOUS OF EARTH MOVING EQUIPMENT AND HEAVY MACHINERY (SOUNDBITE) (English) ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE BASE TINDAL WING COMMANDER FIONA PEARCE, SAYING: "Tindal has traditionally been
  • Embargoed: 9th August 2024 02:43
  • Keywords: ADF Australia Australian Defence Force China Defence Defense Marine Corp Marines Osprey RAAF Royal Australian Air Force South China Sea USA United States of America
  • Location: DARWIN, TINDAL, AUSTRALIA
  • City: DARWIN, TINDAL, AUSTRALIA
  • Country: Australia
  • Topics: Asia / Pacific,Conflicts/War/Peace
  • Reuters ID: LVA001161524072024RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:The United States military is rapidly constructing in northern Australia to support its forces' ability to project power into the South China Sea in any crisis with China, a Reuters review of tender documents and interviews with U.S. and Australian defence officials shows.
    The projects, due for construction this year and next at RAAF Base Darwin and the inland RAAF Base Tindal, make northern Australia the top overseas location for U.S. air force and navy construction spending under 2024 and 2025 U.S. Congressional Defense Authorizations, totalling over $300 million.
    Closer to the Philippines than Australia's eastern capital Canberra, Darwin was the only Australian city bombed in World War Two, and has long been a garrison town for the Australian Defence Force and a U.S. Marine Rotational Force that arrives for six months of each year.
    It has re-emerged as a strategically vital Indo Pacific base in United States defence planning, officials told Reuters – even as the centre-left Labor government of Anthony Albanese maintains a policy of no U.S. bases on Australian soil.
    RAAF Base Tindal, 200 miles (322 km) south of Darwin was officially opened in 1988. Escaping tropical cyclones, its remoteness also holds security advantages as the home for Australia's F-35A Joint Strike Fighter, and the new long-range surveillance drone, Triton.
    Its location is "vitally important", said RAAF Base Tindal Wing Commander Fiona Pearce, with "greater reach into our near region".
    Large sections of RAAF Tindal's tarmac are being dug up as part of a U.S.-funded expansion to become "big enough to take any aircraft in the world", she said.
    Australia is spending A$1.5 billion on RAAF Tindal's redevelopment, and by July a new airport terminal, control tower, hangars and accommodation for surge personnel were near completion, Reuters found on a visit to the base. Separate U.S. and Australian bulk jet fuel stores sit side by side.
    But the remote location poses challenges in sourcing materials and a workforce, Lendlease Civil Superintendent Clint Cartwright told Reuters.
    A third of residents in the sparsely populated Northern Territory are Indigenous Australians, although they make up just 10% of Darwin's population.
    Growing demand for defence housing in Darwin has sparked a dispute with Traditional Owners including Tibby Quall, 75, over coastal forest land-clearing, and he says rising prices are pushing Indigenous families out of the city.
    A 2011 agreement with Australia for the Marine Corp to train in Darwin on a temporary basis has evolved into a regional deterrence role for some 2000 U.S. Marines who arrive each year, said Commanding Officer of the U.S. Marine Rotational Force, Colonel Brian Mulvihill. War games this month included Philippines and Timor Leste troops.
    "Darwin is absolutely key terrain for us to help bring stability to the region," he said in an interview at Darwin's Larrakeyah Barracks.
    "We are more focused on that interoperability with the Australian Defence Force – how can we project power from northern Australia into the region," he added.
    At RAAF Base Darwin, the U.S. will construct a dedicated tarmac area for the Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey assault support aircraft - used to land troops from a ship.
    A U.S. Air Force squadron operations building was awarded for construction in April. The United States is seeking to disperse air power from its largest bases in the Pacific, such as Guam, to reduce vulnerability to a Chinese attack.
    The Australian government recently highlighted its own plans to spend A$14 billion "hardening" the northern bases under the country's biggest defence shakeup since World War Two, as tensions rise in the South China Sea, where two-thirds of Australia's trade transits.
    Canberra has drawn closer to its top security ally Washington under the AUKUS (Australia, Britain and the United States) pact to transfer U.S. nuclear submarine technology to Australia next decade. Yet it has been largely silent on the U.S. military construction underway in the north, thousands of miles from Australia's population centres.
    (Production: Stefica Nicol Bikes)
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