[ralfy]

https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/stat ... 1092124674

The US Air Force is building a new "mission planning" and "squadron operations facility" in northern Australia.

It's part of $630 million in US military spending in northern Australia over 2-3 years.

The US is preparing to use Australia for war on China.

[ralfy]

https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/statu ... 4781708288

Former national board member of the Australia China Business Council:

"Australia military integration [with the US has made it] a client state of the US... Australia [is now] a by-product of US policy rather than as a relatively independent entity."

"Death knell sounds for Australian diplomacy in the region after US ministerial talk"

https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/ar ... rial-talks

[theluckycountry]

It' s been ongoing for a while really. US marines have been stationed near Darwin forever and a couple of years ago they increased their force size considerably.

Posted Sun 10 Oct 2021

There were only 200 marines in the first rotational force in 2012, a year after President Obama's visit to the NT marked a new chapter in US-Australian military co-operation.

At its peak in 2019, 2,500 troops rotated through Darwin on six-month deployments, along with a suite of aircraft, weapons, and vehicles.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-10/ ... /100523120

31 Aug 2017 Exercise Crocodile Strike
They don't look very dangerous do they


'Secret' Australian Military Bases Revealed By Google Maps
https://www.businessinsider.com/secret- ... led-2013-1

Anecdotally I heard first hand of a sub base up near darwin that was all hush hush. As long as they keep it all up there I'm content.

[theluckycountry]

Pentagon eyes missile testing role for Australia

August 9, 2023
Work under AUKUS has so far focused on supplying Australia with nuclear-powered submarines, a fleet capable of travelling stealthily over vast distances and striking foes at long range. But the pact is increasingly focused on developing advanced capabilities such as long-range precision firing, artificial intelligence and hypersonic weapons.

Wormuth said Australia could be a proving ground for these weapons. “One thing Australia has in spades is long distances and relatively unpopulated land,” she told AFP in a telephone interview from Washington.

“A challenge for us in the United States when it comes to hypersonics or even some of our things like the precision strike missile — which is not a hypersonic weapon but has very long ranges in some of its increments — for us to find open spaces in the United States where we can actually test these weapons, it’s a challenge.

For much of the Cold War, it was Washington’s policy to be able to fight two major wars at once. Wormuth admitted that today, budget constraints, US public opinion and the relative strength of Russia and China make such a doctrine impossible.

https://insiderpaper.com/pentagon-eyes- ... australia/

[Newfie]

The Australian/US connection started in WWII when Australia was threatened by Japan and the Commonwealth (UK) was in no position to help. The US, for their own reasons, provided military assistance. There were also strengthening of commercial ties. The UK was looking to Australia for meat imports, but German subs were making that difficult. The solution was for Australia to export meat to the US West coast and then have comparable supplies supplied to the UK from the East coast. Probably worked for other goods as well, that is just one example I read about in “Taste of War”.

[theluckycountry]

Australia picks South Korea’s Redback as its new infantry fighting vehicle

Why? Because the name sounds cool probably

In announcing Hanwha as the preferred tenderer to supply the new IFVs, the Australian government also disclosed a significant reduction in the fleet size, scaling down from the initially planned 450 vehicles to just 129, which marks a decrease of nearly 75 percent in the fleet size.

The LAND 400 Phase 3 project, is valued between $5 billion ( $3.4 billion USD) and $7 billion ( $4.8 billion USD) and stands as one of the Australian Army’s largest acquisition initiatives to date. Moreover, the vehicles will be locally manufactured at Hanwha’s facilities in the Geelong region.

https://defbrief.com/2023/07/27/austral ... g-vehicle/

So it ticks all the boxes. Cheap, cool name, will be locally made in Victoria. You couldn't make it in South Australia because they went full retard alternate electricity and blew their wad on a huge Tesla Battery. Now they struggle just to keep the lights on, not much room for heavy industrial.

Interesting that the .gov dropped the fleet by 75%. I guess they don't want to waste too much money on kit they will no doubt send to places like the ukraine just to be blown up. It's ok to back the US forces politically, and with a few advisors, but this business of taking good Australian dollars and wasting them on failed American military campaigns is dumber than dumb.

We have a lifestyle to maintain down here, we are a huge country with a low population and have an extensive road network that need rebuilding from time to time, good motorcycle roads many of them too! We have millions of homes that still need to be covered in government subsidized solar panels and we have the social security net that even allows lazy middle-aged women to move back with mum and get a carers pension. Then when Mum dies they get a $2500 bonus payment (for a new laptop?). Free medicines, free hospitals, cheap doctors appointments, basically free if you are on welfare. Yes the list of social liabilities the government has is Ginormous, it's around 75% of the Federal Budget. We simply can't afford to waste money on the military.

[Newfie]

SK seems to be developing as a major weapons supplier.

Poland will be buying their heavy main battle tank AND self production rights.

The one thing I struggle with is why Australia needs such a fighting vehicle? Does your military foresee China or Indonesia invading with land forces? Maybe that is why so few vehicles?

The sub deal seems to make more sense, one would think Australia would like to become a serious naval power.

Just my ruminations.

[theluckycountry]

The one thing I struggle with is why Australia needs such a fighting vehicle? Does your military foresee China or Indonesia invading with land forces? Maybe that is why so few vehicles?

They are for show basically, to give the army something to drive around in, to train in. Our army is so small it's pathetic but we save a fortune not having a real one. I don't believe any serious thinker considers Indonesia as a threat, simply because even if they landed armies across the straights, where would the armies go? There is over a thousand miles of outback up there to traverse before you reach any population. Swamps and dense mulga, few navigable roads. The only way to mount a serious attack would be to come down the coast by sea, east or west, and attack from sea, attack near a city. Again you have thousands of miles of ocean and reefs to navigate. We bribe the dictators up there with humanitarian aid which they mostly pocket for themselves.

255 million Australian dollars in aid in 2020-21.

On a scale of one to 100, where one represents maximal corruption, Singapore’s CPI declined slightly from 85 in 2021 to 83 in 2022, followed by Malaysia from 48 to 47... But Indonesia fell from 38 to 34, and the Philippines remained stagnant at 33.

https://www.thejakartapost.com/paper/20 ... rther.html

As a general rule, if a politician says something, then assume the opposite is actually going to occur. Politicians are good contrary indicators. "Make America Great Again" What would that entail? Well basically a 90% drop in oil prices with the refilling of the nations conventional fields. Tens of millions of high paid jobs would have to quickly return, the national debt would have to be reduced by 90%, the nations infrastructure would have to be restored to 1960's quality and the besetting race issues would need to be eradicated. Is this possible? No. Ergo America can never be made great again. Common logic.

Many scholars refute the standard line that the Japanese were going to invade Australia. That was an idea fostered by the government to galvanize the nation behind the war effort, to garner cannon fodder. Fact is Australians were all well armed unlike all the other nations the Japanese invaded. Yes they met opposition from colonial forces on landing but the general populations were not armed with military grade hunting rifles as the aussie men were. Even today there are millions of long guns in private hands, repeater shotguns, auto pistols, cranky white aussies (85% of the population) with fast cars and a general distrust if not veiled hatred of the non-white populations.

We're a bit like Switzerland or the US in that respect. Very difficult to subdue. Air superiority is the key to any battle of course and I just couldn't see a small nation like Indonesia running the picket of our modern US made squadrons. Anything is possible but because Australia is generous with it's aid and with the export of resources to China there is really no incentive for them to go to war with us. They know all this rhetoric out of Washington and Canberra is just that, just talk. And the minerals keep flowing. Why did the Japanese attack Peal Harbor? Because the US imposed an oil embargo. When goods don't cross borders armies do so the trick is to keep the goods flowing.