United States commits to spend hundreds of millions more on NT Defence assets

The United States Congress has approved hundreds of millions of Defence spending in the NT. Read our exclusive table that shows where the money’s going.

The United States Congress has committed hundreds of millions of new dollars to upgrading Top End airforce infrastructure.

The passage of the National Defense Authorisation Act through Congress this month has approved an additional almost half-a-billion Australian dollars being spent by the US in the Northern Territory next year.

It is on top of hundreds-of-millions of dollars already spent or committed by the United States military on upgrading Australia’s northern bases.

Combining this year and next year, the US is expected to have spent $536.1m on airforce infrastructure in the NT.

Aircraft from the Royal Australian Air Force and United States Marine Corps participate in an Elephant Walk on the RAAF Base Tindal.

The big ticket item from the NDAA for Australia was securing access to US nuclear submarine technology – but beneath the cracks of the 4400 section Bill are a number of other measures targeting Indo-Pacific security that will impact the Northern Territory.

Delayed for two months by Republican Party congressional infighting, the passage of the NDAA made it through both congressional houses in mid-December.

It approved 2024 funding for the Top End’s two RAAF bases at Darwin and Tindal.

On top of its previous spending, the US has budgeted A$192.4m for new parking aprons at RAAF Base Darwin.

It’s understood the new aprons will be used by the US Navy for marine aircraft.

In addition, the USA Airforce has allocated about A$229m upgrading facilities at both RAAF Darwin and Tindal.

On top of the A$429m committed for 2024, the United States’s total expenditure in the Northern Territory since President Barack Obama’s historic visit to Darwin in 2011 has passed the billon-dollar mark.

This includes the East Arm refuelling tank farm which will come in at about $200m when completed and the Marine Rotational Force which is based at Robertson Barracks during the Dry.

Part of the United States’ Pacific Deterrence Initiative, a budget briefing note said the funding will “enhance US deterrence and defence, assure allies and partners and counter adversary threats in the Indo-Pacific region in response to China’s growing military power”.

Writing in The Strategist magazine, defence economist George Henneke said the investment would serve two key functions.

“It establishes an Indo-Pacific maritime domain awareness initiative to enhance the ability of partners to monitor the region for emerging threats (and it) makes important strides in information sharing, creating an administrative body to oversee modifications to US foreign disclosure policies,” he said.

In October, Master Builders NT released a report that said Defence would spend $6.23bn and add almost 8000 jobs to the Territory economy by 2027.

Originally published as United States commits to spend hundreds of millions more on NT Defence assets