According to bidding documents, officials have confirmed to Agence France-Presse that the U.S. military plans to establish a permanent combat weapons stockpile for the Marine Corps on the southeast coast of Australia. This marks the first time the U.S. Marine Corps has established such a stockpile in Australia, aiming to leverage Australia’s strategic position to counter the increasing military expansion of the Chinese Communist Party in the Indo-Pacific region.
The documents released by the U.S. Navy this month indicate that the advanced planning for this massive Australian stockpile has entered a significant stage. The U.S. has allocated $30 million for the construction of warehouses and offices in the southeastern region of Victoria for “critical frontline supplies.”
The stockpile is expected to reach its maximum capacity by 2028, with materials currently stored in Melbourne and set to officially move to a rural area in Bandiana, Victoria, at an Australian military base next year. The U.S. military is hiring defense contractors worldwide to employ approximately 110 engineering and security experts to manage the facility, with stock including crew-served weapons.
The U.S. Marine Corps has been prepositioning military supplies globally since the Cold War era, such as in Norwegian caves and floating warehouses at sea. Today, facing geopolitical risks, the U.S. military is accelerating the restructuring of its logistics network in the Indo-Pacific. Apart from Australia, the first land-based stockpile in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to be operational in the Philippines this year, located adjacent to the South China Sea conflict hotspots. The Pentagon has also requested $500 million from Congress next year to enhance equipment and fuel prepositioning in the Asia-Pacific region to deter the Chinese Communist Party.
The deployment in southeastern Australia is specifically chosen to counter and contain the rapid military threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party in the Indo-Pacific region in recent years.
The Chinese Communist Party has engaged in large-scale land reclamation activities in the South China Sea and deployed anti-aircraft missiles and anti-ship systems. A recent report from the Lowy Institute warns that China now has the capability to launch ballistic missiles directly at northern Australia from these South China Sea outposts. This has put the northern city of Darwin, which has long hosted rotating U.S. forces, under direct threat, prompting the relocation of the weapons stockpile southward.
Professor John Blaxland from the Australian National University points out that with the improvement of China’s long-range strike capabilities, the core Guam base in the Pacific faces extremely high risks. Therefore, the safety depth in southeastern Australia has been assigned an “increasingly important significance.” This location not only avoids the range of most Chinese missiles but also serves as a new foothold for the U.S. military to counter the expansion of the Chinese Communist Party.
Due to Australian laws prohibiting foreign military bases on its soil, this highly embedded plan involving permanent U.S. military assets is particularly sensitive locally.
Expert from think tank, Sam Roggeveen, states that the growth of U.S. military assets in Australia represents a “significant shift in Australian defense policy,” binding Australia’s strategic goals more closely with those of the United States. Professor Blaxland analyzed that as Australia is politically unwilling to significantly increase its own defense spending, facilitating increased U.S. military investment in Australian military infrastructure is widely seen as the most pragmatic and cautious approach to addressing the threat posed by China.