US military footprint growing in Australia

SYDNEY, June 17 (AFP): US Marine Corps plans for a crisis-ready stockpile in Australia are part of a "growing US footprint" in the country and important for national security, Defence Minister Richard Marles said Wednesday.

The US Marines will include Australia in a global prepositioning programme for weapons, ammunition and vehicles for the first time, AFP reported on Tuesday, citing tender documents.

An initial stockpile in Melbourne city will move to US warehouses at Australia's Bandiana military base in rural Victoria.

"We are seeing a growing US footprint in Australia, that is important in terms of building our own military capability, but also it's very important for Australia's national security," Marles told reporters in Western Australia.

"An American logistics footprint is part of its overall force posture on the continent," he said.

"Bandiana is a place which supports logistics, support for the Australian Defence Force, and it makes sense that as America seeks to do that, it would do it at the same place," Marles added.

Australia does not permit foreign military bases on its soil, but hosts US Marines for exercises for six months of the year in the northern city of Darwin. A rotating force of US-commanded submarines will arrive in Western Australia next year.

Marles said the "hugely significant American presence" in the Asia Pacific was a balance to China's "very significant military build up".