Australia rejects plan to become base for US nuclear aircraft carrier
Source: Agencies |
August 3, 2012, Friday
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AUSTRALIA yesterday rejected a proposal by a Washington-based think tank to base a nuclear aircraft carrier strike group on Australia's west coast as part of a shift of US military might to the Asia-Pacific region.
A Pentagon-commissioned report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies on repositioning United States forces in the region suggested the relocation of an aircraft carrier from the US East Coast to an Australian naval base south of the city of Perth.
But Australian Defense Minister Stephen Smith said yesterday that while talks were under way to increase US navy access to Australia's Indian Ocean base, HMAS Stirling, it would never become a US military base.
"We have made it crystal clear from the first moment - we don't have United States military bases in Australia. We don't see the need for that," Smith told Australian Broadcasting Corp television.
Smith said the think tank's proposal was not endorsed by the US government. "It's a suggestion by an independent think tank. It's not one we're proposing to take up," he said.
The report said more than US$1 billion would need to be spent to make HMAS Stirling capable of becoming a home port to a nuclear carrier that would become the flagship of a carrier strike group.
Such a group would typically include two guided missile cruisers, two or three guided missile destroyers, two nuclear-powered submarines, a supply ship and up to nine squadrons of aircraft.
The Australian base would give the US a second carrier strike group in the Asia-Pacific, the first with an existing Japanese home port in Yokosuka.
Washington has been forging closer military ties with countries in the region and has announced that 60 percent of the US Navy's fleet will be based in Asia-Pacific by 2020, up from less than 55 percent now.
Australia is a staunch US ally and the only country to fight alongside the US in every major conflict since the start of the 20th century.
Washington and Canberra announced late last year an agreement on closer military cooperation in which up to 2,500 US Marines would rotate through a joint military training hub in the northern Australian city of Darwin. The US Air Force will also make greater use of airfields and bombing ranges in the Australian Outback.
The US in recent decades has had three exclusive military intelligence communication bases in Australia. But they were targeted by protesters, and with pressure from Australian governments became joint US-Australian facilities.
The only one remaining is the top secret Joint Defense Space Research Facility at Pine Gap in central Australia.
A Pentagon-commissioned report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies on repositioning United States forces in the region suggested the relocation of an aircraft carrier from the US East Coast to an Australian naval base south of the city of Perth.
But Australian Defense Minister Stephen Smith said yesterday that while talks were under way to increase US navy access to Australia's Indian Ocean base, HMAS Stirling, it would never become a US military base.
"We have made it crystal clear from the first moment - we don't have United States military bases in Australia. We don't see the need for that," Smith told Australian Broadcasting Corp television.
Smith said the think tank's proposal was not endorsed by the US government. "It's a suggestion by an independent think tank. It's not one we're proposing to take up," he said.
The report said more than US$1 billion would need to be spent to make HMAS Stirling capable of becoming a home port to a nuclear carrier that would become the flagship of a carrier strike group.
Such a group would typically include two guided missile cruisers, two or three guided missile destroyers, two nuclear-powered submarines, a supply ship and up to nine squadrons of aircraft.
The Australian base would give the US a second carrier strike group in the Asia-Pacific, the first with an existing Japanese home port in Yokosuka.
Washington has been forging closer military ties with countries in the region and has announced that 60 percent of the US Navy's fleet will be based in Asia-Pacific by 2020, up from less than 55 percent now.
Australia is a staunch US ally and the only country to fight alongside the US in every major conflict since the start of the 20th century.
Washington and Canberra announced late last year an agreement on closer military cooperation in which up to 2,500 US Marines would rotate through a joint military training hub in the northern Australian city of Darwin. The US Air Force will also make greater use of airfields and bombing ranges in the Australian Outback.
The US in recent decades has had three exclusive military intelligence communication bases in Australia. But they were targeted by protesters, and with pressure from Australian governments became joint US-Australian facilities.
The only one remaining is the top secret Joint Defense Space Research Facility at Pine Gap in central Australia.
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