The federal government will spend $3.8 billion over the next four years to upgrade military installations across Australia's north.
The pledge follows the release earlier this week of the Defence Strategic Review, which recommended Australia's defence forces shift their strategy towards missiles and long-range capabilities.
The funding for northern Australia is part of a total of $19 billion being spent by the federal government to implement the review's recommendations.
Defence Minister Richard Marles, who travelled to Darwin for the announcement, said the bolstered funding was an "immediate investment" in northern Australia's defence infrastructure.
The $3.8 billion in funding will be dedicated to upgrades, including:
- $2 billion for air base upgrades across the Northern Territory, Queensland and Cocos Islands
- $1 billion to upgrade land and 'joint estate' capabilities
- $600 million for maritime bases, including HMAS Coonawarra and HMAS Cairns
- $200 million to fast-track existing programs
Training areas across the Northern Territory, including at the Robertson Barracks in Darwin, as well as at the Lavarack Barracks in Townsville, would also be upgraded.
"As the Defence Strategic Review rightly observes, our northern bases are a huge asset and critical to Australia’s ability to project," Mr Marles said.
"This is an important opportunity which will ensure the ADF has the infrastructure and capabilities it needs into the future."
The public version of the Defence Strategic Review was released on Monday, recommending Australia invest heavily in missiles and long-range defence to combat more distant threats.
It found that Australia's geographic isolation was no longer a major defence advantage due to enhancements in maritime, land, air, space and cyber warfare.
Mr Marles said the plan would allow for a "far greater focus on thinking, on planning for our northern bases" and would provide an important military footprint in the region.
"Ultimately, we understand how significant a national asset our north is, how significant a national asset Darwin is."
Mr Marles said personnel numbers in Darwin and the north would grow over the next decade, bucking the trend of some resources and units being shifted interstate in recent years.
The defence minister said the upgrades would allow more US Marine rotations through the Northern Territory, and a greater opportunity for other countries to also take part in exercises in the region.
Top End bases to be 'hardened'
Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said the upgrades would include providing more shelters for aircraft to survive attack, more storage for fuel and weapons, and improving infrastructure so bases can be accessed more easily.
Mr Conroy said the government would reshape the army to expand out the range of weaponry from just 40 kilometres at present, to more than 500km in the future.
"It's really important that Australia be able to project power," he told ABC Radio Darwin.
"There will be more personnel serving in the Northern Territory and Darwin than before the DSR (Defence Strategic Review) was launched."
When asked how many missiles would be based in the Northern Territory, Mr Conroy said the government had doubled its order of 20 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) but did not say how many would be based in the continent's north.
There would be more refurbishment and repair work carried out on navy vessels in Northern Australia, which Mr Conroy said would mean more "high paying jobs for Darwinians".
He also said infrastructure across northern Australia, which is vulnerable to disruption during the wet season, would need to be "hardened".
"There's an entire chapter in the DSR dedicated to the impact of climate change, both the impact of climate change on our national security, on our infrastructure and — to be quite frank — the call on the ADF to support communities when natural disasters strike."
When asked about the geostrategic implications into the leasing of the Darwin Port to a company with links to the Chinese Communist Party, Mr Marles said the results of an ongoing review into the port were "not far off".
