Page 48 - Australian Defence Magazine April 2023

48 DEFENCE IN THE NORTH NORTHERN BASES
APRIL 2023 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
Minister for Territory Development Eva Lawler stated the ship lift would be built, she did not say when.
The Territory government announced in July 2022 it had signed Clough-BMD as the preferred joint venture contrac- tor to design and build the facility, despite the stated cost soaring from $400m to $515m.
Clough was placed in voluntary administration in De- cember 2022 and its assets and nine projects, including the Darwin ship lift, were taken over in February 2023 by Ital- ian construction giant Webuild.
As originally planned, the 103m long, 26m wide facility would be able to lift the RAN’s 1,640 tonne Arafura-class Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) – six of the 12-strong class are to be homeported at HMAS Coonawarra – and other military and civilian vessels of up to 5,000 tonnes.
ARMY BASES AND RANGES
In the land domain, $711 million is being spent on upgrad- ing the close training area at Robertson Barracks, Army's major establishment in the Northern Territory and home to 1 Brigade and 1st Aviation Regiment. The base also sup- ports the US Marine Rotational Force Darwin.
The upgrade program, starting in 2023 and scheduled for completion in mid-2026, also takes in the Kangaroo Flats, Mount Bundy and Bradshaw Field training areas.
Robertson Barracks’ work involves a new weapons train- ing facility to supplement the existing facility now at capac- ity, and new indoor and outdoor combat shooting ranges in
addition to a new outdoor range for urban assault training. Kangaroo Flats will receive three new outdoor weapons ranges designed for various combat training activities and
equipped with technically advanced targetry systems.
Mt Bundy is also to receive a new outdoor range but for proficiency training on longer-range weapons. Upgrading the existing urban operations training facility for up to 120 personnel and construction of a new arming and refuelling
point for helicopters is also planned.
In the Bradshaw Field Training Area, the Nackeroo Air-
field runway is to be extended and sealed, along with con- struction of an aircraft parking apron suitable for two C-17 Globemaster III transports and eight MV-22 Osprey tiltro- tor aircraft.
Meanwhile the Pine Gap Joint Defence Facility located on the outskirts of Alice Springs remains one of Austra- lia's most classified and strategically important sites, from where US surveillance satellites are controlled and commu- nications monitored across several continents.
Tasking, resources, and costs relating to the jointly-run US and Australian base, fully operational since 1970, are top-se- cret but the former head of Britain’s MI6, Sir Richard Dear- love, last year described the surveillance facility as “hugely important strategically to the US and the western alliance”. ■
BELOW: HMAS Broome departs HMAS Coonawarra, Darwin, during exercise Kakadu 2022
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