US military assets to be hosted at Australian air bases, as future of AUKUS defence pact assured
US warplanes will be ‘pre-positioned’ at Australian air bases, it has been revealed, as a huge vow was made on the $368bn AUKUS defence pact.
US warplanes will be pre-positioned on Australian shores, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles says, following “very constructive” talks with Trump officials during the Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN).
Mr Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong met with their US counterparts Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio in Washington on Monday local time.
It was the first such meeting under the new Trump administration.
“A theme of the previous AUSMINs that both Penny and I have been involved in has been the growth of American force posture in Australia, that continued in what we discussed today” Mr Marles told reporters in Washington.
He confirmed there would be further investment into the infrastructure of RAAF Base Darwin, RAAF Base Tindal and RAAF Base Amberley to support increased rotations of American military aircraft, including fighter planes, bombers and intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft.
“And that builds on the existing rotations, which are happening right now, but it highlights the significance, within the context of all of our force posture, of the force posture that is now underway in the air domain,” he said
He added the talks had confirmed the “pre positioning of significant American assets in Australia.”
“That includes Ospreys (military aircrafts), which are operated by the United States Marines, and particularly through the marine rotational force Darwin, and that was a very important outcome,” Mr Marles said.
The AUSMIN meeting also came days after the contents of a secretive Pentagon review into the AUKUS defence pact had been released to Australian officials.
The assessment has yet to be made public by the US government.
Asked about the changes triggered by the review, Mr Marles indicated it was a positive step forward for both countries.
“Look, as I mentioned last week, we received the AUKUS review from the United States last week,” he said.
“And we’re very grateful for having received it as we are, in fact, for the visibility which they provided to us all throughout the review, and the way in which they enabled us to contribute to the review.
“I mean, in the context of moving full steam ahead – and that is very much the context in which the review has been written – the review is essentially looking at ways in which AUKUS can be done better.
“And we continue to work with the United States and the United Kingdom about how we can do AUKUS better.”
In prepared statements, Mr Rubio described the US has having “no better friend” than Australia following a year of “momentum” behind the alliance, including a positive meeting between Anthony Albanese and Donald Trump in October.
“And so we have a lot of things we’ve worked together on, at the direction of the President. AUKUS is full steam ahead, as he said,” Mr Rubio said.
“And I know the Department of War – though Secretary Hegseth will discuss that further – has conducted a review, which – it’s a review about how we can expand this relationship, about how to build on it, so that it can be about many things.”
The secretive Pentagon review into AUKUS was commissioned in July and cast doubt on the future of the $368bn defence pact.
However, Mr Hegseth positively endorsed the partnership between Australia and the US, saying there was “a lot we’re going to do together in the months ahead”.
The countries were “deepening (their) co-operation” on the defence industrial base, working on the historic critical minerals deal – signed by Mr Albanese and Mr Trump in October – and moving forward with AUKUS, Mr Hegseth said.
“We’re strengthening AUKUS so that it works for America, for Australia, and for the UK,” he said.
Originally published as US military assets to be hosted at Australian air bases, as future of AUKUS defence pact assured
