The dry season in the Northern Territory has begun and a new rotation of 1,150 US Marines is trickling into Darwin from all over the world. They make up the fourth six-month rotation since former Prime Minister Julia Gillard and US President Barack Obama struck a deal in 2011 as part of the US military's "pivot" to the Asia-Pacific region. The number of marines rotating through Darwin began at a few hundred and is set to gradually increase to 2,500 by 2017.

Four years in, few if any of the initial debates surrounding the agreement and its repercussions have been resolved. This is partially by design. The gradual build-up has been just one element of a careful campaign to acclimatise locals to the US presence that's also involved community-focused regulations and outreach programs.

Last December VICE talked at length with Justin Tutty of Basewatch, a small group with numerous concerns regarding the US military presence, and asked him for his read on local feelings.

"I think most people in Darwin don't realise it's an issue yet. There's been a really tight propaganda campaign around it. And people up here are pretty relaxed to begin with. And I guess the scale and the scope was talked down. The people who are worried are the people who are tuned into past experiences of sexual assaults and the social problems that come associated with other rotations and other visits."

The Marines will be stationed in Darwin for training for the six months of the Top End's dry season. They are the fourth rotation since former prime minister Julia Gillard and US president Barack Obama struck a deal in 2011 to gradually increase the number of US Marines rotating through Darwin to 2,500 troops by 2017. A small ceremony was held at Darwin Airport with America Galaxy C5 as aircraft carrying CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters from Guam in Central America touched down. "We're coming from all over the globe," Lieutenant Colonel Eric Dougherty of the US Marine Corp said. He described the rotation in which US Marines will live and train at the Australian Defence Force's Robertson Barracks as "unique". "Most places we go to a different country and have our own base there. We're operating inside the base," he said. "But here we're going to be living inside the barracks. "You guys have opened up your homes to us. We're living in your guest house." Lt Col Dougherty said the training opportunities in the Northern Territory were a big drawcard. "You have some world-class training facilities here," he said. "Bradshaw training area (south-west of Darwin) is three times the size of anything we have in the States. "The outback truly is out back, with vast wide open spaces. "There's things we can do here we cannot do back in the States."

The rotation follows speculation the growing US military presence in Darwin could cause tensions with China. Lt Col Dougherty would not comment on what impact another rotation of US Marines would have on relations with China. Last year for the first time Chinese soldiers trained on Australian soil with the Australian Army and US Marines, but Lt Col Dougherty said no training was planned with China on this rotation. He said the Marines were keen to start sporting teams, including trying their hand at rugby union.

An expert in US politics says Australia is not in total control of the rotation of US Marines through Darwin and warns tensions may arise in the future. Associate Professor at the US Study Centre at the University of Sydney, Brendan O'Connor, sounded a note of caution as Darwin prepares to welcome 1,200 US Marines, who begin arriving on Monday. "This may [have] been something that governments over a long period of time may have wanted, but when you are dealing with such a powerful ally and an ally that is so much more powerful than Australia you are not in total control of the situation," he said. Under the deal struck between former prime minister Julia Gillard and US president Barack Obama, the number of US Marines rotating through Darwin each year will gradually increase to become 2,500 troops by 2017.

Mr O'Connor said while Australians may be in favour of the deal while Mr Obama is the US president, the agreement is a long-term deal and it may lose public support in Australia if a Republican president wins office. "That is somewhat of the naivety of how the original deal was looked at. As a deal with Obama rather than with American politicians over a 20-year period," he said.

Australia has sided with the US in a program of strategic containment of China and Darwin is at the centre of a regional military buildup. But you’ll likely read better coverage of it in China than here. Later this month, as the monsoon subsides and soft mud becomes solid ground, the permanent rotation of US marines through Darwin will enter its next iteration. Another 1,150 marines will arrive in the Top End, bringing with them a plethora of vehicles, weapons and ammunition. In Chinese media, details of the rotation, along with the similarly underreported plans to use the Australian Cocos Islands as a base for American drones, are represented as what they in fact are: clear evidence that Australia is siding with the US in a program of strategic containment of China.

It is unsurprising that Australians are only vaguely aware that the first ever permanent peacetime deployment of foreign troops in the nation’s history is now occurring. The yarns spun by our politicians portray the deployment, which will swell to at least 2,500 marines over the next few years, as doing all things for all people. To our wary southeast Asian neighbours, the rotation is presented as a humanitarian aid and disaster relief operation, ready to spring into action at the first whiff of a meteorological event. Nationally, it is downplayed as a mere “troop rotation” and “interoperability” exercise, an end in itself with no greater military implication. Locally, an upsurge in jobs servicing the American troops is promised, as too is an influx of foreign currency to be spent on entertainment, infrastructure and tourism. Recent news of Chinese military construction in the South China Sea is troubling, but in the context of the unprecedented American regional military expansion that has been occurring for years it is unsurprising. If the Australian government desires to dampen regional tensions, and seek a path different from unquestioning support for the US in a zero-sum confrontation with China, an honest dialogue on how our foreign policy supports the national interest must be undertaken. While the nature and purpose of the Darwin marine rotation remains obscured, the prospects for this are bleak.

THE state-of-the-art warship USS America is slated to join a record contingent of Marines in Darwin this dry season, according to US Navy chiefs. More than 1100 American Marines will arrive in Darwin this month. The US Navy has been developing plans to send ships to Darwin Harbour, effectively allowing the Marine contingent to rapidly deploy anywhere in the Asia-Pacific region. Initial plans for the Marine rotation were to expand to 2500 troops a year by 2016 or 2017. Reports from the US suggest the build-up will reach its peak sooner rather than later.

Plans are also afoot to send amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard, amphibious transport dock Green Bay and dock landing ship Ashland to the Top End this year.