The defence minister, Richard Marles, has refused to say when American B-52 aircraft will start operating from the Northern Territory.

Asked a direct question about whether he knew when B-52 aircraft would start their deployments from the RAAF base in Tindal, 320km south-east of Darwin, he replied:

Look, I’m not about to go into those details. Again, we are working very closely with our American partners.

There is a significant force posture initiative that’s being undertaken between ourselves and the United States, which I might say is seeing enormous American investment in our northern bases here at Darwin and Tindal, but across the north, that [provides] a huge advantage for our country.

The B-52 is a long-range, heavy bomber that can carry out ocean surveillance and anti-ship operations and “can carry nuclear or precision guided conventional ordnance”

The United Kingdom has sent an elite Special Forces Unit to the Top End ahead of a massive multinational military exercise this month.

Last weekend, troops from 40 Commando, Royal Marines, touched down at Darwin Airport to take part in the Australian Army-led Exercise Predator’s Run.

Having travelled more than 14,000 kilometres, it is understood 40 Commando’s touchdown was preceded by an advanced party which arrived early to plan alongside local Australian Defence Force (ADF) units.

The Defence spokesman also confirmed personnel from the Philippine Army would participate in the exercise.

Darwin’s Diggers will be allowed to climb aboard the US V-22 Osprey aircraft, despite the controversial tiltrotor being placed on a worldwide flight restriction.

The news comes as Darwin’s 1st Brigade ramp up training activities alongside their US Marine counterparts across the Top End.

The Department of Defence told the NT News there were no restrictions on the carriage of Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel in US aircraft.

Marine Rotation Force – Darwin (MRF-D) also confirmed there were no restrictions stopping their Australian counterparts from boarding their airframes.

“They clearly don’t have answers still on the cause of the mishaps and why the hard clutch engagement is happening, and they don’t have a fix for it”

An MV-22 Osprey touched down on an Australian warship last week, another indicator the tiltrotor is returning to routine service with the Marine Corps after a series of deadly crashes.

The U.S. military grounded its fleet of about 400 Ospreys between Dec. 6 and March 8 as it investigated the Nov. 29 crash of an Air Force CV-22 Osprey that killed eight airmen off Japan’s southern coast. An Osprey assigned to last year’s Marine rotational force crashed in August north of Darwin, in Australia’s Northern Territory, killing three Marines and injuring 20 others, three seriously. The Osprey has been plagued by a problem called hard clutch engagement that caused loss of control in some instances and was blamed for the deaths of five Marines in a June 2022 Osprey crash in California.

After the November crash, the Marines put their Ospreys in the air again less than a week after Naval Air Systems Command cleared them for flight on March 8.

Navy Ospreys are not yet flying passengers to aircraft flight decks

US officials are accusing the Pentagon of “recalcitrance” following attempts to obtain documents concerning the controversial aircraft. Meanwhile in the Top End, the tilt-rotors continue to fly.

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) have remained cagey on the issue and have failed to confirm whether ADF troops would be permitted to board the aircraft.

The accusation comes after the subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs announced it would explore the controversial aircraft’s extensive history of deadly crashes in a hearing this week.

Subcommittee Chairman Glenn Grothman blasted the “unacceptable” number of US service members killed on board the tilt-rotor and accused the Pentagon of not complying with the requests of elected officials.

It is expected the most recent Osprey crashes will be examined in detail, including the deadly crash at the Tiwi Islands in August 2023, in which three Marines were killed. On August 27, 2023, Captain Eleanor LeBeau, Major Tobin Lewis and Corporal Spencer Collart were killed after their MV-22 Osprey went down on the first day of Exercise Predators Run.