Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Tuesday that the US will increase its military presence in Australia in a buildup aimed at China.
In a joint press conference with Australia’s defense minister and foreign minister, Austin said that the US will increase its rotational forces in Australia. “That includes rotations of bomber task forces, fighters, and future rotations of US Navy and US Army capabilities,” Austin said.
Details on the rotational deployments aren’t clear, but they will likely focus on the Australian city of Darwin in the Northern Territory, where US Marines have been rotating through for years.
Australia’s ABC News reported in October that the US will be deploying six nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to Australia to a base just south of Darwin. The US is building facilities to house the bombers, which are expected to be completed by 2026.
The US and Australia have been stepping up military cooperation since signing the AUKUS pact with the UK in 2021, a part of the US effort to build alliances against China. The deal focuses on technology sharing and will give Canberra the capability to acquire nuclear-powered submarines.
While announcing the additional deployments, Austin accused China of “dangerous” actions in the region. “China’s dangerous and coercive actions throughout the Indo-Pacific, including around Taiwan, and toward the Pacific Island countries and in the East and South China Seas threaten regional peace and stability,” Austin said.
Many countries in the region are not eager to get on board with the US’s confrontational approach to China. The prime minister of Papua New Guinea said this week that his country can’t afford to get caught between the US and China and said he told the US your “enemy is not my enemy.”
Indonesia’s president expressed similar concerns during a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in November, saying the ASEAN must not let the region turn into a frontline for a new Cold War.
It always starts somewhere, then it builds and builds until KABOOM! If the planes are nuke capable, I think it is logical to assume they have nukes onboard, right?….
Even if/when the planes have nukes onboard, nukes do not just go KABOOM – not if the plane is shot down nor if it accidentally drops a nuke – to explode it has to go through a long process.
So no nuclear explosion without intent to bomb something.
There is an old adage that goes: “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”…
Whatever we didn’t learn in the first two World Wars, will be learned in the Third World War… My bet would be on nuclear annihilation….
Interesting place to start: Darwin… “Natural Selection”…
We are apes, fundamentally, who can’t tolerate one another very well and whose reaction to trouble is to grab a club and bash the other guy’s brains out. Also, we are very, very bad at assessing the current status of events. We think the world is falling apart because there are conflicts and disagreements, whereas in historical terms these are considerably smaller than in the past. But they loom large in the over-reactive presentist ape brain. So, sure, let’s have war with Russia, Iran, North Korea, and China. It feels good and exciting before all the bad stuff happens to those whom we actually know and care about.
Putting B52s in Australia with available Nukes convinces me that the people in Politics and the MIC have there heads up their collective asses. They lost in Viet Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Why in the hell that is coming would they delude themselves that a war with China will be different.They just don’t know or can’t afford economically the fact that their empire days are over.The US is totally opposed everywhere except for a few stoogesUntil the Masters of Mankind realize that the world and the game has changed against them Civilization and Humanity are living on a razors edge.
I hope that everyone reads my last comment. It really is one of my better efforts. Peace now.
Merry Holidays!
On the one hand, this essentially increases the number of nukes that we can launch at China from several thousand to several thousand and a little bit more
On the other hand, this reminds the world that we have nukes, and our official policy is to use them against any one at any time for any reason (no options are off the table).
Our basic stance seems to be obey us or die. We rule by fear. With more of the world disobeying us, we are resorting to more intense saber rattling.
What can I say? Priceless.