MỸ VỪA ĐIỀU ĐỘNG 6 B52 TÚC TRỰC TẠI CĂN CỨ KHÔNG QUÂN TINDAL DARWIN./-Mt68
____________________
US has big plans for Australia
These growing tensions with China have made northern Australia a crucial defence hub for the US, which has committed to spending more than $1 billion upgrading its military assets across the Top End.
The Tindal air base expansion includes a parking area that can accommodate six B-52 bombers and is forecast to cost up to $US100 million. The US Air Force says the parking area will be finished in late 2026.
"The RAAF's ability to host USAF bombers, as well as train alongside them, demonstrates how integrated our two air forces are," it says.
In April, the US Department of Defence budgeted $US14.4 million ($22.5 million) for the squadron operations and maintenance facilities at Tindal.
"The [squadron operations] facility is required to support strategic operations and to run multiple 15-day training exercises during the Northern Territory dry season for deployed B-52 squadrons," the US documents say.
The US also plans to build its own jet fuel storage tanks and an ammunition bunker at the site.
"The north of Australia in the new geopolitical environment, has suddenly become strategically much more important, if not crucial to the US," says Paul Dibb, a former senior official at the Department of Defence in Canberra.
A greater presence of US forces in Australia was hinted at during last year's annual ministerial meetings, known as AUSMIN.
Under so-called "enhanced air co-operation" it was agreed there would be "rotational deployment of US aircraft of all types in Australia".
"Today we endorse major force posture initiatives that will expand our access and presence in Australia," US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin said.
There was no mention of rotating B-52s through Tindal, although there have been hints in recent years.
Equally important to the growing US presence in northern Australia is the construction of 11-giant jet fuel storage tanks in Darwin.
Some of this fuel reserve was previously located at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii, but is now being dispersed across the region.
"Without that kind of assurance of jet fuel in this country, the US simply wouldn't be able to treat Australia as a location from which it can stage military exercises and operations with confidence," says Ashley Townshend from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Mr Townshend says the B-52s at Tindal are just the start.
"We will see much greater numbers of US military personnel forward located in Australia. That will include personnel from all three services, navy, air force and army, as well as the marines in Darwin, which are likely to be expanded," he says.
In the AUSMIN communique, this was flagged as part of efforts to "advance … force posture co-operation" to "deter our adversaries".