As Australia’s relationship with China becomes increasingly tense, a new development in the Aussie outback seeks to strengthen ties with our US allies.

Details and photos of the much anticipated $747m army base expansion planned for the Northern Territory have been released to the public.

The new development will help the Australian Defence Force and United States house and train troops on Aussie land.

The project, which spans four locations over 580km across the top end, comes in the wake of increasing global tensions between Australia, the US and China.

The four new military sites will be located at Robertson Barracks, Kangaroo Flats, Mount Bundey and Bradshaw Field.

Australia and the US are in talks to deepen their military co-­operation, with plans for new ­exercises on Australian soil ­including joint training with American army soldiers.

The proposed exercises with the US army would be modelled on the annual rotation of Marines through Darwin, and use a variety of military training areas including those in Queensland.

The Morrison and Biden ­administrations are also in the midst of delicate negotiations to build guided missiles in Australia using top-secret US technology, and store US weapons and equipment at Top End bases.

The US wants to store munitions and defence equipment in Australia’s Top End under a bilateral force posture review to better prepare the ANZUS allies for growing strategic threats from China.

Mr Goldman said geostrategic tensions required a more “innovative defence partnership” between Australia and the US, including co-production of precision-guided weapons on Australian soil.

He said a bilateral force posture review working group, established following last year’s AUSMIN talks, had met for the first time ­earlier this month to discuss “a wide range of contingencies”.

Mr Goldman said it was too early to provide details on any new initiatives, but said pre-positioning US weapons in Australia offered strategic advantages.

Mr Goldman’s comments follow the US government’s announcement last year of a $15m contract to build an earth-covered weapons magazine and munitions conveyor at RAAF Base Tindal, south of Darwin, as well as upgraded fuel storages.

Australia should brace for a strong response by China after reports the Federal Government was in talks about strengthening US military capability in the Northern Territory, an expert has warned.

"Australia should expect a large amount of rhetoric from state-backed media or a foreign ministry spokesman," Dr Coyne said.

Acting US ­ambassador to Australia Mike Goldman said the closer links "just makes sense" in light of the "new geostrategic context" in the Asia Pacific region.

Australia is in talks with Washington to build US-designed missiles on home soil and to store a stockpile of American munitions in the NT, as tensions between China and the West soar.

While nothing has been finalised, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced in March the government plans to shell out $1billion to start producing hi-tech guided missiles in Australia.

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