Trump’s US Forces Are Shipping in Locally Through a Door Left Wide Open
Since late January, the United States has been in authoritarian freefall, as the second coming of the Trump administration has unleashed a semi-coordinated assault on American democracy, and as this has been transpiring, the pace of US encroachments onto this continent of many nations has picked up, even though the idea of our own nuclear powered submarines is drifting off into the distance.
A growing number of constituents are slowly becoming aware that Submarine Rotational Force – West (SRF – West), a joint US-UK rotational submarine force made up of four US nuclear-powered submarines, or SSN, along with one British boat, is being established on Noongar land at the HMAS Stirling naval base on Meandup-Garden Island the year after next.
But many are still unaware that discussions between the federal and NSW governments on the yet-to-be announced Submarine Rotational Force - East are underway to see if it will be stationed on Dharawal land in Port Kembla or Awabakal and Worimi land in Newcastle, and while it was once thought local bases would house locally-owned subs, it’s likely these will be bases for US boats.
Meanwhile, over in the US of A, the mad king of Mar-a-Lago Donald Trump and his secretary of war Pete Hegseth are conducting extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean, as they gear up to war on Venezuela to secure its oil reserves, by pretext of the war on drugs, and while the pair appear somewhat hesitant in respect of China, there’s no stalling on the war they’re waging domestically.
The US has increasingly been refuelling airforce fighter jets on their way to the Middle East in northern Australia, where the US military has now secured force posture in “every domain – land, sea, air, cyber and space” – under PM Anthony Albanese, and while the White House is now commencing a war on its own people, we’re supposed to trust it won’t spill out here.
A sent of sulfur on the breeze
The first US military personnel involved in SRF – West were arriving in WA around now. They’re the first of 700-odd staff to be stationed on Noongar land, likely not too far from Meandup-Garden Island, which is across from a town called Henderson on the mainland, where a defence precinct is being established, with the Albanese government having just pledged $12 billion towards it.
Federal Labor first announced Henderson Defence Precinct, “a consolidated Commonwealth-owned” operation at the pre-existing Henderson shipyard in October 2024. WA Greens MLC Sophie McNeill recently paid a visit to it and reported that the US SSN stationed across the way will undergo maintenance at the precinct, and she added that this will be “the fifth US facility of this kind”.
Transparency Warrior Rex Patrick broke the news on 15 September 2025 that discussions between federal and NSW Labor are underway and near completion on where a submarine base should be established in NSW, with a final NSW cabinet position paper about to be advanced. Not only does this mean nuclear subs for NSW, but it’s likely another base for US submarines to be stationed at.
The temperature has turned up in respect of the US presence on this continent ever since Israel commenced genociding the Palestinians of Gaza in October 2023, as its understood that Washington’s second most important spy base, Pine Gap, positioned in the Red Centre of the continent on Arrernte land is providing intel to Israel, which it receives via our sponsor the US.
Since 2012, Marine Rotational Force – Darwin, a presence that has built to 2,500 US Marines has been stationed at the Robertson Barracks in Garramilla-Darwin for six months a year, starting in March to work with local troops. This was part of the Obama administration’s 2011 pivot to Asia, which the Gillard government agreed to and was signed into law by the Abbott government in 2014.
Other force posture initiatives secured by the US include an agreement to increase the interoperability between American and Australian air forces and that the Pentagon has unimpeded access to a list of local areas and bases, which it takes control of when upgrading. At present, RAAF Base Tindall is being overhauled, which will include an area for six US nuclear capable B-52 bombers.
Australia respects the US policy of ‘warhead ambiguity’, which means Canberra doesn’t ask if US air or water vessels are carrying nuclear warheads. However, it’s likely the Trump administration respects little about the Albanese government. Hegseth’s recent summonsing of Australian deputy PM and defence minister Richard Marles to the US at short notice, only to then snub him, spoke volumes.
No real need for Australian subs
The inroads the US military has been making onto this continent over recent years commenced at a pace under Albanese, after his predecessor PM Scott Morrison unveiled the AUKUS deal in September 2021, with the promise of eight Australian-owned SSN presented to the constituency, leaving the exorbitant price and the addition of SRF – West, to be revealed by Albanese in 2023.
Since the AUKUS Optimal Pathway was announced in March 2023, the soft US colonisation in north Australia and the Pentagon’s influence over our military has escalated. Albanese has agreed for the nation to become a US domestic source for military purposes, which sees Washington favoured for critical minerals exports, and he’s too agreed to start producing guided missiles for Uncle Sam.
Despite the Australian-owned SSN being the key enticement hung before the Australian public in terms of AUKUS, this acquisition has increasingly appeared unviable both in terms of the US supply of three Virginia attack class submarines, as the Pentagon is way behind on production, and the UK-assisting in the building of five AUKUS SSN for this nation has too been in doubt.
A July 2024 report by US thinktank the Congressional Research Service was the first indication that government entities in the States were actively contemplating the viability of not supplying Australia with any Virginia class attack SSN early next decade and considering whether SRF – West might suffice in terms of an SSN presence here, with additional US boats then being sent over.
As noted in theunadulterated last week, Trump has US undersecretary of defence policy Elbridge Colby reviewing the viability of AUKUS, in terms of its supplying SSN to this country. The review outcome will have no impact on SRF – West being established. Colby has stated he’s an AUKUS “agnostic”, and as for ex-PM Morrison, he’s working with former CIA director Mike Pompeo.
Demented US masters
The 2011 Obama pivot to Asia was about turning US military strength towards a rising China, which now has an economy that threatens US hegemony, and that’s why AUKUS was established, in preparation for a coming war that had appeared more imminent when former US president Joe Biden was in office, but with Trump, this appears less certain especially because of Beijing’s might.
But the takeover in the north is continuing at a pace and any teething issues that Hegseth and Trump may have with warring on China has certainly not slowed ongoing moves to station US submarines on either side of the landmass, while it came to light last month that the US Marines will be stationing their Osprey tiltrotors at Toowoomba Airport in Queensland, when not in Darwin.
The issue for this nation now is that it hitched its boat to the US post-World War II, and that’s meant allowing the US a local presence, with this beginning to significantly rise a decade ago, and the last four years of AUKUS have seen the US presence hitting overdrive to the point that Labor elder statesmen Paul Keating and Bob Carr have both warned of our drift towards US territory status.
The issue for PM Albanese in the present is that he threw open the gates to the US in northern Australia at the start of his time in office, yet this relinquishing of authority has let the thuggish MAGA team waft in through the door, and as Trump is currently waging a domestic war on his own people, it would be ill advised that Labor doesn’t consider that he won’t throw the rulebook out with us.
