ADF: Marles reveals plans for British aircraft carrier to visit Australia
As Italian aircraft carrier ITS Cavour prepares to depart Australian waters, Defence Minister Richard Marles has revealed he’s in discussions to have an international aircraft carrier visit the Top End.
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Another international aircraft carrier could be pulling into Darwin, with Defence Minister Richard Marles confirming discussions with both the United Kingdom and France to have a new seagoing air base visit and train in the Top End in 2025.
The confirmation follows the stop over by Italian aircraft carrier, ITS Cavour, in which the vessel became the first aircraft carrier in history to participate in flying activity Exercise Pitch Black.
In Darwin on Thursday, Mr Marles said another European aircraft carrier may visit the region in the near future.
“We have an ongoing dialogue with both France and the United Kingdom about their engagement in exercises and specifically, the bringing of their aircraft carriers to our region,” he said.
Mr Marles revealed the United Kingdom was particularly interested and had an eye to visit Australian seas as early as 2025.
“The UK has quite extensive plans about bringing a carrier to this part of the world next year,” he said.
“We’ll be talking with them about how that can be done effectively, we already have been speaking about that when I met my counterpart John Healey, the new Secretary of Defence in the new UK government.”
Mr Marles said the government would “work closely” with their British counterparts to ensure such a deployment would be successful.
“We spoke specifically about the UK bringing their Carrier Strike Group to the Indo Pacific next year and how we can best maximise the effect of that.”
Currently, the United Kingdom have two aircraft carriers at their disposal: HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, which are valued at around AUD $6bn each.
While Mr Marles did not specify which carrier might navigate the Timor Sea, it was reported by British media in April that HMS Prince of Wales would lead the deployment of a Carrier Strike Group to Japan in 2025.
As for the outgoing aircraft carrier ITS Cavour, Mr Marles, who will meet its crew before they depart Australian waters, said Italy had issued a “significant statement” by deploying an aircraft carrier to the other side of the world.
“It is really a significant statement by Italy to not only Australia but our region,” he said.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing the capability of the Italian aircraft carrier and I’m particularly excited about seeing the variant of the F-35s.”
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