Len should bid for this
Len Brown should bid against the Aussies for the base for a US Carrier Group. the economic benefits would far outweigh a silly taxi race around Pukekohe:
A report for the US military contains a recommendation to expand America’s defence presence in Australia by massively expanding a base in Perth for a US aircraft carrier and supporting fleet.
The report’s authors will give testimony before Congress’s Armed Services Committee on Wednesday in the US.
The CSIS was directed to consider how the US military could undertake the “pivot” to the Asia-Pacific region announced by President Barack Obama last year in response to China’s increasing influence.
The third option in the report – formally titled US Force Posture Strategy in the Asia Pacific Region: An Independent Assessment - details moving a US carrier strike group to the HMAS Stirling base in Perth.
The strike group would include a nuclear powered aircraft carrier, a carrier air wing of up to nine squadrons, one or two guided missile cruisers, two or three guided missile destroyers, one or two nuclear powered submarines and a supply ship.
“Australia’s geography, political stability, and existing defence capabilities and infrastructure offer strategic depth and other significant military advantages to the United States in light of the growing range of Chinese weapons systems, US efforts to achieve a more distributed force posture, and the increasing strategic importance of south-east Asia and the Indian Ocean,” says the report.
