Published:
Oct 31, 2022 08:52 GMT
The move is intended as a warning to Beijing as fears of an assault on Taiwan grow in the West.
Amid rising tensions with China, the United States is reportedly planning to deploy up to six nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to an airbase in northern Australia. reported this Monday the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC), citing a source familiar with the matter.
The bomber facility will be built at the Australian Air Force base Tindal, some 300 kilometers south of Darwin, the capital of Australia’s Northern Territory, said the source, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak. publicly on the subject.
Today, thousands of US Marines rotate through the Northern Territory annually for joint training and exercises, initiated under President Barack Obama. “There are visits, of course, to Australia, including in Darwin, which has US Marines, of course, on a rotating basis stationed there,” he pointed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during a press conference.
Washington has drawn up detailed plans for what it calls a “squadron operations facility,” to be used during the Northern Territory’s dry season, an adjacent maintenance center and a staging area for B-52s, according to the report.
The deployment to Australia of the B-52s, which have a combat range of about 14,000 kilometers, will be a warning to Beijing as fears grow of an assault on Taiwan, said Becca Wasser, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, based in Washington, to ABC.
Australia strengthens its defense capabilities
The Australian Defense Minister, Richard Marles, assured in July during an interview with Sky News Australia that his country is modernizing its Armed Forces in the face of the increase in Chinese military capacity in the Indo-Pacific region.
“We must walk the route of modernizing our defense force and making sure that the capabilities are the best possible,” said Marles, who added that these measures are aimed at “Australia being in a position to promote its national interest.” , as there is a “largest single military buildup since the end of World War II” by China.
He also mentioned that his country is seeking to obtain nuclear-powered submarines, which will be provided by the US or the UK, the other two members of the AUKUS tripartite defense alliance. “AUKUS is a capability-enhancing technology sharing agreement and right now we’re using it for Australia to acquire a nuclear-powered submarine capability, but all of this is really being done in a very cooperative way,” he said. Australian defense.
