The US Marine Corps (USMC) will begin storing and maintaining Bell Boeing MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft in northern Australia between annual training rotations, marking a new stage in the Marine Rotational Force – Darwin (MRF-D) initiative.
The USMC has been rotating MV-22s to Australia annually as part of the MRF-D training effort, according to Australia’s Department of Defence (DoD).
“For more than a decade, cooperation between Australia and the US, under the Force Posture Agreement, has enhanced our capacity to deter coercion and maintain a secure and stable Indo-Pacific,” says Australian army Brigadier General Mick Say.
“The storage of MV-22 Ospreys in Australia between annual MRF-D rotations is consistent with the US Force Posture Agreement and represents the continuing development of a deeper relationship with the United States.”
The DoD notes that over the last decade the annual April-September MRF-D deployments to Darwin and northern Australia have grown from 200 marines to 2,500 this year.
The DoD says that storing Ospreys permanently will increase the availability of aircraft for training, reduce transport costs, and “remove the import-related impost of Australian border agencies”.
The DoD does not specify the number of Ospreys that will remain in Australia after this year’s MRF-D rotation ends.
While the DoD does not explicitly state it, storing Ospreys locally means they are better positioned to deal with a regional crisis, such as Chinese military action in the South China Sea or against Taiwan.
In 2024, the USMC said that 10 MV-22Bs had deployed to Darwin.
