{"id":68401,"date":"2024-08-06T22:13:06","date_gmt":"2024-08-06T22:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2024\/08\/06\/us-australia-announce-additional-basing-and-weapons-plans\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:12:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:12:31","slug":"us-australia-announce-additional-basing-and-weapons-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/pentagon\/2024\/08\/06\/us-australia-announce-additional-basing-and-weapons-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"US, Australia announce additional basing and weapons plans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The U.S. and Australia announced new agreements on basing and building weapons together Tuesday, part of an attempt to cement the Biden administration\u2019s strategy in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first initiative will increase America\u2019s access to bases on Australia\u2019s western and northern coasts. The U.S. has been spending hundreds of millions of dollars on military construction there in recent years, in part because of the area\u2019s proximity to the South China Sea, where Beijing has lately grown more aggressive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going forward, the U.S. will now be able to work at Royal Australian Air Force Base Learmonth, on Australia\u2019s western shores, and will also expand its construction work on Scherger and Curtin, two other bases on different ends of the northern coast, according to the Pentagon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of this will mean more a maritime patrol aircraft and reconnaissance aircraft operating from bases across northern Australia,\u201d American Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said at a Tuesday press conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two countries will also work to build, sustain and develop weapons more closely together. Most of these will be munitions: either the guided multiple launch rocket system, or GMLRS, or the precision strike missile, known as PrSM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By December, the two countries will finish plans to assemble the first munition and produce and sustain the second together. To coordinate the work, the U.S. will open a new joint programs office in Huntsville, Alabama, next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\t