Australian military airfields, ports and a space base get billion dollar upgrades

Australian defence sites deemed critical are set to get a multi-billion dollar makeover. See why and what’s planned.

Military airfields and a space spy base will get a multi-billion dollar makeover with runways extended, fuel storage created and better security to significantly “harden” our northern flank.

The Defence Strategic Review, the blueprint for our future military needs, found the capability of the ADF and allies the United States was being limited by shortcomings at our bases, notably at RAAF Base Tindal and the strategic Indian Ocean outpost on Cocos (Keeling) Island.

The $3.8bn will be committed over four years to harden infrastructure to the network of northern bases, a similar recommendation was made in the 2013 Defence White Paper but was never followed through.

The Defence Strategic Review, the blueprint for our future military needs, found the capability of the ADF and allies the United States was being limited by shortcomings at our bases. Picture: Glenn Campbell

The DSR, a public version of which was released earlier this week, noted northern maritime approaches remained vulnerable and ordered “an imperative to urgently and comprehensively remediate this network of bases with priority to be given to critical air bases”.

Those critical bases, to receive an allotment of $2bn, include RAAF Base Learmonth (WA), RAAF Tindal (NT) and RAAF Base Scherger and RAAF Base Townsville in Queensland.

Part of the upgrades, were to facilitate US aircraft notably the nuclear-capable B-52 bombers at Tindal and RAAF and American drones to operate out of the tiny Cocos atolls.

Australian Army soldiers carry their gear off a landing zone during an exercise in the Northern Territory.



About $1bn has been given for upgrading Robertson Barracks in Darwin, where US Marines are largely based and Lavarack Barracks in Townsville. The DSR has pointed to the possibility of an expanded presence of rotating US forces on land, air and sea across Australia.

HMAS Coonawarra in Darwin and HMAS Cairns which has been expanding considerably since 2018 will also benefit from a refit.

Notably the joint Australian-US Harold E Holt Naval Communications Station will receive an upgrade.

The base near Exmouth in WA is the most powerful transmission station in the southern hemisphere and operates low frequency comms for the RAN and USN and is part of the US Space Surveillance Network.

A Royal Australian Air Force KA350 King Air flies past the Harold E. Holt Naval Communication Station near Exmouth, Western Australia.

Harold Holt naval base in Exmouth

The network gathers space intelligence including tracking Chinese satellites as they launch from the simply named defence facility Base 25 in Taiyuan in the Shanxi Province in North China.

It is at this base China tests its intercontinental ballistic missiles and prototype rockets. A radar established at the Station in 2018 is 2 degrees off the Chinese space trajectory making real time tracking a possibility.

The $3.8bn over four years is a reallocation of funds saved from elsewhere within the Defence portfolio. Some of the work at Tindal has already begun.

Defence Minister Richard Marles and Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy will visit Darwin on Thursday to make the formal announcement.