Defence strategist Paul Dibb has urged the upgrade of the RAAF’s Top End “bare bases”, saying the government’s $1.1bn investment in RAAF Base Tindal is a “clear sign of the deteriorating security environment”.

Professor Dibb, who sounded the alarm over the vulnerability of Australia’s north in a landmark 1986 review, also called on the government to consider the acquisition of land-based missiles, to give the nation a credible long-range strike capability.

“We need strike, with significant range. Not short-range. The days of just sitting offshore are gone,” the Australian National University scholar and former intelligence chief said.

US Studies Centre defence analyst Brendan Thomas-Noone said USAF B-52s were likely to be “rotated through” RAAF Tindal.

“It’s about trying to present more targets for China to account for,” he said. “If you are able to land these bombers in Australia, in the Indian Ocean, in other parts of Southeast Asia, up in Alaska, that is a lot of different places that China would have to track, if there was a conflict.

The upgrade of the Tindal base will include major runway extensions, fuel stockpiles and engineering to support Australia’s new Joint Strike Fighters, US Air Force B-52 strategic bombers and RAAF KC-30 air-to-air refuellers.

It wouldn’t be shocking if, in coming years, attack submarines from the U.S. Navy, Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy all sailed from the same base just 2,500 miles from the Chinese fleet’s main haunt in the South China Sea.

Australia is moving to acquire nuclear-powered submarines while also expanding a naval base on its northern coast that could shorten the distance the boats might have to sail in order to reach a combat zone.

And now there are signs that American and British subs might join the Aussie boats. It wouldn’t be shocking if, in coming years, attack submarines from the U.S. Navy, Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy all sailed from the same base just 2,500 miles from the Chinese fleet’s main haunt in the South China Sea.

The RAN already has a base in Darwin, but it’s a small one that at present accommodates just nine small patrol boats. The Australian defense ministry in 2019 launched a $200 million project aimed at expanding the Darwin base with additional fuel storage and another wharf so that it can support large surface vessels and submarines.

A former Australian assistant defense secretary says there might be more Marines in Australia in the wake of a new trilateral defense alliance.

AUKUS, which officials had been talking about for the past 18 months, is about much more than submarines, Babbage said.

“We are going to see larger U.S. forces coming, including U.S. Army forces and air power coming here on rotation,” he said. “It’s quite likely the Marine Corps presence could be scaled up.”

The U.S. Embassy in Canberra and the Australian Defence Department did not respond Friday to questions about the possible effect of the trilateral defense pact on the Marine rotations.

About 2,200 US Marines expected in Darwin in the 2021 rotation as Canberra also eyes improved air, maritime capability.

Outlining further measures on a visit to Washington, Defence Minister Peter Dutton said on Thursday that Australia will be “significantly enhancing” cooperation including working together on the development of missiles and explosive ordnance.

He said Australia was willing to see more US Marines in a 10-year rotation through the northern city of Darwin.

“I do have an aspiration to make sure that we can increase the numbers of troops through the rotations,” Dutton said.

Australia's new strategic alliance with the United States and United Kingdom is likely to see more troops, war planes and naval vessels in the Top End. But any expansion could be hindered by the controversial lease of Darwin Port to a Chinese company, national security experts say.

Heralded as the most significant shift in Australia's defence direction in decades, the centrepiece of the trilateral security partnership, dubbed "AUKUS", is a plan to build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.

But Defence Minister Peter Dutton has also flagged a major enhancement in Australia's military cooperation with the US, which currently deploys about 2,500 marines to the Top End each dry season.

John Coyne from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute said the 99-year lease of the Darwin Port to Landbridge could prove an impediment to the allies' military expansion plans.