An American international politics publication has reported that the US Air Force plans to dispatch fighter jets and tanker aircraft to northern Australia in the next year. The report cited comments by the Chief of USAF Operations in the Pacific, General Herbert 'Hawk' Carlisle, in Washington this week. In a breakfast media briefing, he is reported saying the US would send "fighters, tankers and, at some point in the future, maybe bombers on a rotational basis" to Darwin.

A Darwin community group, BaseWatch, said it was disappointing to find out about any proposed escalation of the US presence in the Northern Territory through the foreign media. A spokesman for the group said locals had no way of knowing whether there were limits to the escalation of the US presence in Darwin.