The Morrison Government has pledged to spend $282 million on two defence projects in the NT “to gear up the Territory’s defence facilities”, but security analysts fear that the Northern Territory is becoming “a repeat of its former wartime role 80 years ago.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is currently in the NT and will attend the 80th anniversary of the Bombing of Darwin ceremony this weekend, told media that the military spending will include the construction of a regional maintenance centre for the Australian Navy’s shipbuilding program.

He touted that it would drive the economy and create an additional 270 jobs for the Territory.

Mr Morrison said the Federal Government will allocate $112 million on 34 projects within the Defence Department “to enhance the nation’s defence capabilities in the Territory”.

“The regional maintenance centre alone will inject around $160 million into the local economy, create around 70 jobs over the next five years, and support the work of more than 1500 tradies from the Darwin region,” Mr Morrison said.

“It will play a key role in sustaining complex naval capabilities, initially including the new evolved Cape Class Patrol Boats and Arafura Class Offshore Patrol Vessels.”

More than 200 tradies will work on the 34 projects across the Territory, he added.

“We will upgrade airfields, working accommodation, and critical communication stations, as well as improving bases including the RAAF Base Tindal, RAAF Base Darwin, Robertson Barracks, and Defence Training areas such as the Bradshaw Training area,” Mr Morrison said.

“The Northern Territory is a key strategic area for Defence and it is the guardian of Australia’s northern approaches.”

Defence Industry Minister Melissa Price said the federal government will be investing $270 billion in defence capability over the coming decade. She said it will support more than 100,000 jobs across the economy.

Security analysts say the Top End becoming a defence springboard into the Indo-Pacific is “a repeat of its former wartime role 80 years ago”.

In September 2021, the trilateral alliance of the Australia, UK, and the United States announced a “historic” security pact, dubbed “AUKUS”, aimed to strengthen military capabilities in the Pacific, allowing them to share advanced defence technologies and equipping Australian forces with the know-how to build nuclear-powered submarines.

In an online forum organised by the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia to discuss the regional implications of AUKUS, former senior Vietnamese diplomat Dr Nguyen Hung Son said that “the real consequences of AUKUS were not the nuclear submarine purchase, but the strengthening of US defence capability in northern Australia, evidence of a long-term US commitment to the region and its allies”.