US expands footprint in Indo-Pacific with new base and troop rotations

Center Senior Fellow Grant Newsham was quoted extensively in this piece by Andrew Thornebrooke.

The United States is seeking to expand its military footprint in the Indo-Pacific region to counter Chinese Communist Party (CCP) adventurism. As part of the effort, Australia has agreed to host more American aircraft and military personnel on its soil, and the United States is further seeking to build new military bases in the region.

Following the unveiling of the AUKUS security pact, defense leaders from Australia and the United States announced at a joint press briefing that their nations would work together to expand rotational deployments of all types of U.S. aircraft to Australia, as well as the associated crew required to man and maintain them and provide logistical support.

More American Troops to Australia

Experts say that the increased number of American aircraft and personnel operating in Australia’s Northern Territory will improve cohesion between the two countries and foster greater American influence in regional security issues.

“The more the U.S. military is in an area, the more influence it has,” said Grant Newsham, a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy, in an email. “And the more it plans, trains, and operates with a local military the more influence it has—and the benefits are both operational and political.”

“It takes a commitment from both directions to bring a foreign military to another country and operate as partners,” Newsham said. “As for Australia, it’s important to not just view northern Australia as a good training area, but also as a place from which to operate outward into the region.”

The United States currently bases about 2,500 Marines in Australia’s Northern Territory, and it is expected that the new units will improve allied response times to emerging crises across the Indo-Pacific.

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