DSR calls to strengthen northern bases

The DSR recommends urgent upgrades and development to Australia’s northern bases should begin immediately.

The Cairns region is vital for Australia’s ocean-based defence, such as a nuclear-powered Virginia-class attack submarine, above. Picture: Department of Defence

The Defence Strategic Review (DSR) and the 2023 Defence Budget have re-emphasised – again – the importance of Australia’s northern bases. Previous White Papers and reviews have urged improvements to Australia’s northern network of bases, ports and barracks, but little has been done, until now: the DSR recommends urgent upgrades and development should begin immediately.

Improving the Australian Defence Force’s ability to operate from those bases was one of six priority areas named by the Prime Minister in his DSR announcement. Construction companies with a footprint in Northern Australia, and especially Queensland, are preparing to implement $3.8bn-worth of infrastructure improvements and hardening as a result.

All of Australia’s critical northern air bases, including the RAAF Scherger bare base near Weipa and RAAF Base Townsville, will share a $2bn investment. This covers critical factors such as fuel supply and storage, weapons storage, hardening aircraft shelters and improving dispersal, enhancing runway and apron capacity, enhancing security and providing the connectivity necessary for mission planning.

RAAF Scherger is mostly unmanned but is a forward operating base for detachments of combat aircraft operating over Australia’s northern approaches. The RAAF base at Townsville is the ADF’s jumping-off point for operations in the north as well as the Pacific. Both are increasingly part of a holistic RAAF capability system that extends to the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in the Indian Ocean: they’re vital for offence as well as defence and, as such, are frontline installations. And, as the DSR implies, they are now increasingly vulnerable without that essential hardening.

Townsville is also home to the Army’s Chinook helicopters and will be the base for its new AH-64E Apache attack helicopters. The MRH90s that are based there will be replaced by UH-60M Blackhawks which will be based further south at Army Aviation headquarters at Oakey, near Toowoomba, and at Holsworthy in Sydney. The Townsville-based aircraft will be maintained by their manufacturer, Boeing, through a new Townsville Industry Node. This will enable the company to provide maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) and build a local supply chain of specialists in things such as turbine engines, avionics and landing gear.

Townsville is home to the Army’s Chinook helicopters. Picture: Department of Defence

The city’s Lavarack Barracks is home to one Army combat brigade and additional supporting elements. Also located in Townsville are most of Army’s own amphibious assets, including LCM-8 landing craft, LARC V amphibious vehicles and the HQ of their parent unit, 10 Force Support Battalion. The DSR has called for the acquisition of a replacement fleet of Army Littoral Manoeuvre Vessels under Project LAND8710 Ph.1 to be accelerated and expanded, supporting a stronger, more resilient amphibious and expeditionary capability.

Further north is the city of Cairns whose Cairns Marine Precinct (CMP) is the focus of marine MRO for commercial as well as military and recreational ships. This is the location of the RAN’s HMAS Cairns Naval Base, along with the Navy’s Regional Maintenance Centre North East which looks after visiting Navy ships.

The DSR explicitly calls for Defence to leverage investments made by the state and territory governments as well as the private sector. The CMP will be expanded to include a new Common User Facility under a joint state-federal $330m investment. This will enable MRO of more and much bigger commercial and recreational vessels and help build a workforce and industry capability that will be vital to support the RAN as well. The Queensland government is also investing some $39m in road and shipyard improvements to connect the CMP’s CUF with Cairns’s other shipyards.

HMAS Cairns will be the home port for at least four of the planned 12 Arafura-class Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) though, following the DSR, Defence’s “short and sharp” surface combat fleet review, to be completed in September, could result in more capable vessels being located there in future.

Defence now seems serious about investing in Queensland and Australia’s north

Not far away is the TAFE Queensland Great Barrier Reef International Marine College (GBRIMC), located at Portsmith. In March 2021, TAFE Queensland was awarded an initial five-year, $36m Pacific Marine Training Services contract by Defence to be delivered at the GBRIMC. Under this contract, TAFE Queensland trains navy and police personnel from Pacific Island nations and East Timor who crew the 22 Guardian-class patrol boats being built in WA under the Australian government’s Pacific Maritime Security Program.

This is part of Australia’s Defence Cooperation Program which is a key pillar of Australia’s bilateral relationships in the region and, says the DSR, “must continue to grow in importance”.

In late July for two weeks, Exercise Talisman Sabre 2023 will see some 30,000 Australian and US troops and sailors undertake the two countries’ largest-ever bilateral training exercise.

This biennial event is based in north Queensland and will see logistics, amphibious landings, firepower demonstrations, land combat exercises and air operations on an unprecedented scale. AUKUS will make this exercise, with its expeditionary nature, more relevant still.

Previous iterations have provided the ADF with a first look at US Army and Marine capabilities such as the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) which the Army is now about to acquire.

The DSR is a response to Australia’s declining strategic circumstances and the importance of Australia’s northern bases and exercise areas has again been highlighted. This time, it would appear, there is no room for bluffing: ­Defence now seems serious about investing in Queensland and Australia’s north.