Australia's northern bases may be a 'juicy target' but the US is showing interest

US military investigates converting remote Australian airstrips to major fuel depots Near Katherine, in the vast expanse of the Northern Territory, 7.30 has walked through a newly built bomb shelter at RAAF Base Tindal. Here, some of Australia's most capable fighter jets, the F-35, along with new ultra-long range Triton surveillance drones are located. The shelters — the first of many — are a rare sign of preparation for a potential military threat to the country's north, with Tindal, a high-value target for anyone threatening Australia. "We are at the forward-end of Australian security," Wing-Commander Alex Smith told 7.30. "We have an air combat capability here which projects air power, and at the same time we could be a very juicy target for an adversary. "If you knock us out of the fight, you take away a fair bit of Australia's capability." Those comments highlight the strategic importance of Tindal, and soon there could soon be more operational capacity for other northern bases. Those include RAAF Curtin and RAAF Learmonth in north-west Western Australia. They are termed 'bare-bases'. They have no permanent Defence presence beyond a caretaker staff, although Learmonth operates as a civil airport for nearby Exmouth. That may change. The US military has investigated the possibility of further expanding its presence in northern Australia, using Air Force bases as jet fuel depots. The US government last year formally sought proposals to build jet fuel depots capable of storing 190 million litres at RAAF Curtin, RAAF Learmonth and RAAF Amberley near Brisbane. The WA bases are routinely used for training exercises and can be scaled up for operational use should it be needed. In contrast, RAAF Amberley is Defence's largest air base, home to assets like the Air Force's Super Hornets and Growlers, and substantial infrastructure to go with them. Contract documents published by the US government last year sought interest from companies that could build a facility capable of "receipt, storage, additive injection and issue of (jet fuel)" at each base, with a combined holding of over one million barrels. The contract documents are now listed as "inactive" and the US Department of War has been contacted for comment on whether the plans are progressing. Defence Minister Richard Marles said additions to these bases would be welcome, and fit with the government's broader strategy for northern Australia. "We talk to America, of course, about each of its plans in respect of building that capability," Mr Marles told 7.30. "That is a great capability to have here. It's a capability we both benefit from. "And so American investment in our bases here in that sense is a real positive for us both." Growing US presence in Australia's north US investment at RAAF Curtin would continue a steady flow of US dollars into Australia's northern defence bases. Major construction works are either underway or have recently been completed at RAAF Darwin and RAAF Tindal, like new parking aprons and facilities capable of hosting long-range bombers. Darwin also hosts an annual training rotation of thousands of US Marines, an initiative launched under former US President Barack Obama, who described the region's sea lanes as "critical to all our economies". But despite the significant investment in infrastructure, the region does not host a permanent US presence — and there is sensitivity around describing anything as a 'base'. Colonel George Flynn, the Commanding Office of Marine Rotational Force Darwin, said the presence of Marines in Darwin is open to any country to interpret how they choose — including China. "Anyone can take from it what they will. Any country has the right to do that,"Colonel Flynn said. "We just are here demonstrating that we have strong teammates in the Australian Defence Force, and we're getting ready and better every day as we work together." The chief of the Royal Australian Air Force, Air Marshal Stephen Chappell, said the American investment serves as a very real deterrent to any potential adversaries. "We are interchangeable, not just interoperable but interchangeable with our US forces," he said. "That interchangeability is incredibly important and again an important deterrent signal." Asked if that deterrent message was aimed at China, Air Marshal Chappell said it was more about showcasing Australia's alliance. "We're sending a message to the world — it's agnostic of any particular party — that we have a very close alliance." Defence's 'strategic autumn' In recent weeks, the skies of northern Australia have lit up each night with fighter jets and other aircraft from around the world, gathered for Exercise Pitch Black. It's a massive air force exercise, testing pilots and air crews through complex war games often conducted in the dead of night. Nations represented this year include the US, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Spain and France. For some of those attending the vast open skies of northern Australia are a drawcard, and an opportunity they don't often get in congested airspace at home. But Air Marshal Chappell said the exercises are also designed to send a message. "It's a chance to again build those relationships, practice and learn from each other and ensure we are tactically ready to go," he said. "And ultimately that itself is a message and a signal of deterrence." Air Marshal Chappell spoke about his approach to leading the RAAF at a time of heightened tension in the Indo-Pacific, describing it as a "strategic autumn". "Strategic autumn is a simple way of describing the time in history we are in right now. It's great power competition. We're seeing that playing out on the news every single day,"he said. "We're seeing conflicts in the world, we're seeing pressure on the rules-based global order that has been put in place 80-odd years ago to try and stop our species from doing what it did to itself twice in the first half of the last century. "Our role now is to ensure that we are prepared and autumn is a time of preparation. If we think about the seasons, it's time to chop the firewood, prepare for the long dark winter ahead." Building air and missile defence Defence's long-term strategic plans have frequently identified building capability in northern Australia as an immediate priority. Air Marshal Chappell said developing northern bases allows Australia to better project its air power towards the north. "That allows us to defend Australia, but it also allows us to defend those critical lines of communication, seaborne and air," he said. "And it also allows us to project force to stop others .... that might wish to coerce ... or even attack Australia." One area that has been identified as needing urgent investment is air and missile defence. Up to $30 billion was earmarked in this year's Integrated Investment Plan — Defence's spending roadmap — to be spent on air and missile defence over the next decade Professor Ian Langford, a retired brigadier and executive director of Security and Defence Plus, said Australia is playing catch-up. "Capacity and depth is an issue. Australia has a very modest (air and missile defence) capability, which is not keeping up with the scale of the threat,"Dr Langford said. "With the advent of ballistic, hypersonic and long-range systems in countries like North Korea and China, we have limited ballistic missile defence systems without relying on the Americans." Defence analysts have pointed to the devastating role cheap and plentiful drones have played in conflicts in both Ukraine and the Middle East as highlighting the vulnerability of bases like RAAF Darwin and Tindal, along with other sensitive sites like HMAS Stirling in WA — which will be the home of Australia's future nuclear-powered submarines. Air Marshall Chappell said while there are clearly lessons from conflicts like Ukraine, Australia's geography — particularly its vast landmass, and place in the world — is worth bearing in mind. "The ranges and distances in the Ukraine conflict are different to the Middle East and they're different again to here in the Indo-Pacific," he said. "So we've got to understand that what works really, really well in one theatre may have an application in another, but may not be as predominant as it is in the first theatre." The Australian Defence Force (ADF) recently test-fired a possible new medium-range ground-based air defence system, and has said it intends to make decisions this year. Dr Langford says that given the growing US presence at bases like RAAF Tindal, America may be willing to contribute to investment in systems like Patriot surface-to-air missile defence systems. They have been test-fired in Australia before, but have never been adopted by the ADF. "Some of the joint security interests between us and the US, I think, provide an opportunity for American investment," he said. "The Patriot is very expensive. It's very effective and battle proven, but it won't answer every variable when it comes to the threat that we now face. "As we see, particularly in the Middle East, using a $1.3 million missile to shoot down a $100,000 drone is not necessarily the most effective or affordable way to manage this counter-drone threat. Mr Marles says that to understand US interest in Australia's north, it helps to shift perspective. He pointed to a map published in the 2023 Defence Strategic Review that shifts the axis on which Australia is viewed, to put its proximity to South-east Asia, and north to China, in a different view. "What you then see ahead of us is a huge proportion of the world's population, in India, China and South-east Asia, large countries," he said. "That gives you a sense of how we are connected to the world and the significance of this theatre to the way the globe operates. "That explains Australia's geographic significance, and it therefore explains why America has an interest here." Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV