East Arm base tipped for ADF landing craft

A prominent Territory MP and former soldier has detailed the crucial role the NT will play in the event of an invasion. Read what he said.

Solomon federal MP Luke Gosling has detailed a potential “saturation strike” by enemy aircraft on the Northern Territory and compared Australia’s national security environment to that before World War II.

Writing in the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Strategist magazine, the Top End’s federal MP said the strong focus on northern Australia in defence planning including the National Defence Strategy and Integrated Investment Program reflected the crucial role the region would play in defending the nation.

While China was not specifically mentioned, the ADF’s current northern Australia focus targets that country’s bellicose expansion through the Asia-Pacific region.

Member for Solomon Luke Gosling.

“RAAF Darwin is undergoing runway upgrade works so it can withstand heavy use by military and civilian aircraft, which is vital, and RAAF Tindal, 280 kilometres southeast, will host far-flying MQ-4C Triton, unscrewed maritime patrollers that will begin arriving this year,” Mr Gosling said.

“But here, the Integrated Investment Program gets a bit spicier, by pointing to a scenario that could test our northern bases. We know that a saturation strike by enemy aircraft, cruise missiles or drones is a realistic scenario, a modern equivalent of the Japanese attacks on the north in 1942.

“If modern-day attackers flew towards the Top End, our F-35As and F/A-18F Super Hornets would fly out to engage them with air-to-air missiles, defending our infrastructure and population centres.

US navy F/A-18 Super Hornets fly during an exercise.

“Picture the manoeuvres of the British and US planes that shot down Iranian missiles heading for Israel in April — only this time over the Arafura Sea, again.”

He said northern Australian bases would “have a key role to play in helping the ADF to recover from an attack and strike back at the enemy”.

Mr Gosling said northern Australia’s defence would be seriously boosted by the Commonwealth’s $7-10bn investment in 18 medium landing craft and eight heavy landing craft, to be based in northern Australia.

He flagged East Arm as a potential site to base the Territory’s contingent.

First Brigade and Robertson Barracks office-in-charge Brigadier Doug Pashley said a number of the 26 new landing craft would be based in Darwin, although the final amount was not yet clear.

The rollout would continue First Brigade and the ADF’s push towards a more littoral-focused defence posture, but he rejected a characterisation that First Brigade would be a quasi-Coast Guard.

First Brigade commander Brigadier Doug Pashley.

“We’re transferring into an organisation that’s optimised for littoral operations and long range performance,” Brigadier Pashley said.

“As part of that we’ll procure and introduce 18 landing craft medium and then eight landing craft heavy which are of a scale and capability that will dwarf anything the Army has had before and we’ll see Army, once they’re fully delivered, having one of the most significant kind of maritime capabilities in the region.”

Brigadier Pashley said the first of the landing craft would be introduced into service in 2026.

He said the vessels, presently under construction at Henderson in Fremantle, would make an enormous difference to ADF capacity and were far more than a barge.

“I would classify them as so much more than a barge. The medium craft, for example, are expected to be 80m in length, have life support for crew and a small number of expeditionary life support for any embark forces,” he said.

“It will give us a range of about 2000km and they will be able to transport armies combined armed fighting systems comprising long-range fires, tanks, other armoured vehicles and personnel and protective mobility vehicles out into the region to work with partners and assist in disaster relief and contingencies.

“They’ll have weapons systems, sensors, communications devices. That is an absolute generational leap in capability.”