AUKUS investment includes Cairns naval support facility

The federal government's AUKUS implementation funding package includes $1.2 billion for northern maritime infrastructure, with HMAS Cairns confirmed as the primary recipient of an expansion that will significantly increase the base's capacity to support patrol vessels, offshore patrol vessels, and the mine countermeasures capability that the ADF is developing as part of its enhanced maritime presence in the waters between Australia and Southeast Asia.

The expansion will add new maintenance facilities, deepened berths capable of accommodating larger vessels, expanded fuel and logistics storage, and improved crew accommodation that will allow HMAS Cairns to sustain a larger permanent vessel complement and provide the alongside support that reduces the time vessels spend in southern maintenance yards. The investment will create approximately 600 direct Defence and Defence industry jobs in Cairns on completion.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said the HMAS Cairns expansion reflected the government's commitment to "a stronger northern presence" that the strategic environment required, noting that Cairns's location — close to the archipelago of sea lanes through which the Indo-Pacific's maritime trade flows — made it an irreplaceable element of Australia's maritime surveillance and response network.

Far North Queensland businesses with defence industry credentials have been invited to register with the CASG's regional industry portal to position themselves for the subcontracting opportunities that the construction program will generate over its four-year delivery timeline.

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