'Mariniers VS gestationeerd in Australië'

[Flyguy]

Die van China is anderhalf maal langer 

Met 11 operationele nucleare super carriers betwijfel ik dit...

[Lex]

US report looks at basing nuclear fleet in Perth

A report prepared for the United States department of defence discusses the possibility of basing an American nuclear aircraft carrier fleet in Perth.

US president Barack Obama has made it clear he wants a bigger military presence in the Asia-Pacific.

The report, from an American policy think tank, looks at how to achieve that goal and says one of several options could involve basing a fleet in Perth.

However, it notes HMAS Stirling, the navy base in Perth, is not capable of handling nuclear-powered ships and would require a significant injection of money, probably in the order of billions of dollars.

The fleets usually include a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, fighter jets and guided missile cruisers and destroyers.

In a speech in Canberra, Australia's Defence Minister Stephen Smith says there will be discussions at a later date about US access to the port.

"Down the track, it is also proposed to examine the possibility of increased naval access to Australia to HMAS Stirling in Western Australia," he said.

"For Australia, this presence will support our long-held strategic in maintaining and expanding U.S. engagement in our region."

Mr Smith did not state whether that would include a fleet such as that described in the report.

He went on to say, however, that the US does not have permanent military bases on Australian territory and that would not change.

West Australian Premier Colin Barnett has poured cold water on the report's idea.

"I don't think you could squeeze a nuclear carrier into Cockburn Sound," he said.

State Opposition Leader Mark McGowan also opposes the proposal.

"Reports are released all the time, some have recommendations that will never happen, this is one of them," he said.

The US report says in the past, comparable cost estimates for such a proposal have ranged from $1 billion for a home port in Florida to $6.5 billion in Guam.

ABC Online
August 02, 2012 06:36:46

[Marc66]

Die van China is anderhalf maal langer 

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

Wie is nu aan het provoceren, vraag ik mij dan af 

Een beetje van beide.

"wie heeft de grootste"

[Marc66]

Wie is nu aan het provoceren, vraag ik mij dan af 

[jurrien visser (JuVi op Twitter)]

First US Marines arrive in Australia

Published: 4/04/2012 at 11:32 AM

The first batch of an expected 2,500 US Marines to be deployed in Australia began work Wednesday as Washington bolsters its presence in a strategically vital region, to the irritation of China.

US Marines depart for a multi-national military exercise involving Canada, Britain, France, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, New Zealand and Australia in February 2012. The first contingent of 2,500 US Marines have arrived in Australia to take up residence at a base outside Darwin.
Some 200 Marines touched down in tropical Darwin overnight as part of an enhanced defence cooperation outlined during a visit by US President Barack Obama in November that rankled Beijing.

The troops are in the Northern Territory on a six-month rotational basis and will be based at Robertson Barracks on the outskirts of the city, building to some 2,500 by 2016-17.

In a joint statement, Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Defence Minister Stephen Smith and Northern Territory Chief Minister Paul Henderson welcomed what they said was the latest chapter in a more than 60-year alliance with the US.

"It represents an evolution of existing exercises and activities that the United States already conducts with the Australian Defence Force in Australia," they said.

"The intent in the coming years is to establish a rotational presence of up to a 2,500 personnel Marine Air Ground Task Force, rotating into Northern Australia in the northern dry season.

"There are no (permanent) US military bases in Australia, and this will not change," they added.

The US military currently has only a limited deployment in long-standing ally Australia, including the Pine Gap Joint Defence Facility spy station near Alice Springs.

The latest move represents a significant geo-strategic shift by Washington and it has irked Beijing, whose rapid rise is reorienting Asia's balance. China has said the Marines deployment is proof of a "Cold War mentality".

Wang Jisi, the influential dean of the School of International Studies at Peking University, writes in a candid new study that a mistrustful China is convinced that the United States is bent on holding back its rise.

But the Marines deployment has reassured some Asian countries who see it as a statement that the United States intends to stand up for its allies and interests in the region.

And while the deployment appears to be sending a signal to China and its expanding military, the White House has also made clear it wants to extend its capability to deploy for disaster relief missions in Southeast Asia.

In the statement, Gillard said the Marines force was part of an ongoing US consideration of its global military posture, and she sought to soothe any regional concerns.

"It also supports Australia's long-held strategic interests in supporting US engagement in our region in a manner that promotes peace and stability," she said.

"The initiative could also provide new opportunities for Australian and US engagement with our partners in the region."

Defence Minister Smith also reassured regional neighbours, suggesting Australia's closest neighbour Indonesia and even China, Canberra's most important trading partner, could be included in future joint exercises.

"Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, he came out saying he thought it was a good thing," Smith told ABC radio of the US deployment.

"And he also said that he saw the prospect of not just Australia, the United States and potentially Indonesia engaging in exercises but also the wider region including China," he said, welcoming such a development.

As part of the major expansion of military ties, Australia last week said it may allow the United States to use its territory to operate long-range spy drones.

Washington could also reportedly station US aircraft carriers and nuclear-powered attack submarines in the western Australian city of Perth.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/world/287417/first-us-marines-arrive-in-australia

[Lex]

VS versterken leger nabij Stille Oceaan

MANILLA -  De Amerikaanse minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Hillary Clinton heeft woensdag meer militaire steun toegezegd aan de Filipijnen, die zich zorgen maken over de groeiende spanning met China. Clinton beloofde de Filipijnen te helpen om de zeegrens te beschermen. Ze sprak met haar Filipijnse collega Alberto Del Rosario in Manilla op het Amerikaanse fregat USS Fitzgerald.

De Filipijnse marine is vreselijk verouderd. Ze bestaat grotendeels nog uit schepen die de VS hebben gebruikt tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog, die in 1945 werd beëindigd.

Tegelijkertijd heeft de Amerikaanse president Barack Obama woensdag in Australië toegezegd dat de VS volgend jaar meer militairen in de regio stationeren. Om te beginnen sturen de VS 250 manschappen. Dat aantal kan uiteindelijk oplopen tot 2500. De Amerikaanse marine krijgt daardoor feitelijk een basis in de belangrijke Australische haven Darwin.

Veel landen rond de Stille Oceaan zijn bezorgd over de groeiende militaire kracht van China. China claimt de hele regio van de Zuid-Chinese Zee, een cruciale vaarweg en rijk aan olie, mineralen en visserij. Maar de Filipijnen, Vietnam, Maleisië en Brunei hebben ook aanspraak op delen van de zee.

Obama probeerde echter te verzekeren dat de acties niet gericht zijn tegen het machtige China. ,,Het idee dat we bang zijn voor China is fout. Het idee dat we proberen om China uit te sluiten is fout", zei hij bij een persconferentie in het Australische Canberra, samen met de Australische premier Julia Gillard.

Het vergroten van de Amerikaanse presentie in Australië en Azië is mogelijk geworden door het afbouwen van de oorlogen in Afghanistan en Irak. De VS willen vooral de Zuid-Chinese Zee open houden.

Telegraaf,
wo 16 nov 2011, 08:51

[Lex]

US Marine base for Darwin

BARACK OBAMA is to announce that the US will begin rotating Marines through an Australian base in Darwin in a permanent new military presence, intensifying the alliance in a sign of heightened concern about China.

He is scheduled to make the announcement with the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, when they visit Darwin next Thursday during Mr Obama's first visit to Australia as president. The 26-hour visit will mark the 60th anniversary of the ANZUS alliance.

The Marines are the chief US ground combat force in the Pacific theatre, the so-called ''tip of the spear''.

Two-thirds of all US Marines are based in the Pacific, with big concentrations at US bases on Okinawa Island in Japan and Guam, a US territory 2000 kilometres north of Papua New Guinea.

''This is all about the rise of China, the modernisation of the People's Liberation Army and, particularly, it's about the increased vulnerability of US forces in Japan and Guam to the new generation of Chinese missiles,'' said Alan Dupont, the Michael Hintze professor of international security at Sydney University.

''The new Chinese missiles could threaten them in a way they've never been able to before, so the US is starting to reposition them to make them less vulnerable. Australia's 'tyranny of distance' is now a distinct strategic advantage.''

Professor Dupont, a former Australian Defence official and intelligence analyst, said the ''Australian strategic rationale is that we are also hedging against increasing Chinese military power and their capacity to destabilise maritime trade routes. And we want to get closer to the US.

''There's no doubt at all the Chinese will have serious reservations about this''

Mr Obama and Ms Gillard are not expected to argue that China is a factor in the decision. ''This is a strong gesture that even in the face of budget constraints, the US reaction to the winding down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan deployment is not to go home but to pivot'' into the Asia-Pacific, according to the former deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration, Jim Steinberg.

But Hugh White, a professor of strategic studies at the Australian National University and a former deputy secretary of defence, said the decision would have deep consequences for Australia's relations with China.

''I think this is a very significant and potentially very risky move for Australia. In the view from Beijing, everything the US is doing in the western Pacific is designed to bolster resistance to the Chinese challenge to US primacy.

''In Washington and in Beijing, this will be seen as Australia aligning itself with an American strategy to contain China.''

Mr Obama and Ms Gillard are to say the US will not build a new base for the Marines but will use the Robertson Barracks, the Australian base near Darwin.

But the base is home to about 4500 Australian soldiers and has capacity for only a couple of hundred more. The facilities will need to be expanded to accommodate the US Marines on rotation, whose numbers are expected to build.

Such a decision has been under consideration for some years. The Marines are to use the base for training. ''They want to be able to fly helicopters, drop out of planes and shoot at things, and you can't do that in crowded Okinawa,'' in the words of Mike Green, a former top Asia adviser in the George W. Bush administration.

The Greens oppose any expansion of the US military presence in Australia. By using an existing Australian base rather than building a new US one, the Pentagon considers the new presence will be more ''politically sustainable''.

The then US defence secretary, Robert Gates, said last November in Melbourne: ''We don't want to do things that would be politically difficult for the Australian government. We want to enhance the alliance, not create controversy.''

Sydney Morning Herald,
November 11, 2011 - 3:00AM

[Lex]

SYDNEY -  De Verenigde Staten gaan permanent mariniers legeren op een legerbasis bij het Australische Darwin. President Barack Obama zal dit bekendmaken tijdens zijn bezoek aan Australië volgende week, aldus de krant Sydney Morning Herald vrijdag.

,,Dit is allemaal te doen om de opkomst van China, de modernisering van het Volksbevrijdingsleger en vooral de toegenomen kwetsbaarheid van de Amerikaanse troepen op Guam en Okinawa voor de nieuwe generatie Chinese raketten", aldus een Australische veiligheidsexpert. Australië zou zich door de Amerikaanse aanwezigheid beter willen wapenen tegen de toenemende militaire macht van China, waardoor dat land in staat is handelsroutes op zee te bestrijken, aldus een andere analist.

Volgens de kenners ,,zullen de Chinezen ernstige bedenkingen hebben" over de stationering van de Amerikanen bij Darwin. Volgens een professor strategische studies is de Australische toezegging ,,potentieel erg gevaarlijk" en kan de plaatsing grote gevolgen hebben voor de relatie tussen zijn land en China.

Telegraaf,
vr 11 nov 2011, 07:56