MORE than 1000 US Marines will begin arriving in the Top End in the coming weeks for the fourth Marine Rotation Force-Darwin. The 2015 rotation will see about 1150 Marines, mostly from 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in California, calling the Top End home for six months of the dry season. Four CH-53E helicopters from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 463, Marine Corps Base Hawaii, will also be part of the rotation. Commander of Northern Command, Commodore Brenton Smyth, said the Marines would train with Aussie troops and by themselves at defence facilities in the Northern Territory. “This is now the fourth rotation of Marines to Northern Australia and we continue to build greater understanding and co-operation between our two forces with each new ­rotation,” he said.

The number of Marines in the annual deployment will increase to 2500 in coming years. Chief Minister Adam Giles said the NT Government had appointed a Strategic Defence Advisory Board to help secure some of the Australian Defence Force’s $600 million of federal funding on offer during the next five years, saying: “I want to see this grow even further.”