US DOD shuts down Indo-Pacific fuel storage facility

According to Secretary Austin, the facility, which was built in 1943, is no longer suited for the US’ Indo-Pacific force posture.

“[Red] Hill has served our armed forces well for many decades [but] it makes a lot less sense now,” he said.

“The distributed and dynamic nature of our force posture in the Indo-Pacific, the sophisticated threats we face, and the technology available to us demand an equally advanced and resilient fuelling capability.

“To a large degree, we already avail ourselves of dispersed fuelling at sea and ashore, permanent and rotational.”

Secretary Austin said the Pentagon would now look to “expand and accelerate” its strategic distribution.

The news comes amid the commissioning of preliminary work to construct a new fuel storage facility in Darwin, expected to hold up to 300 million litres of fuel to support the transfer, management and storage of military specification jet fuels used by US forces.

A US delegation, led by US Indo-Pacific Command’s Director for Logistics and Engineering, Brigadier General Jered Helwig, has also visited bases and facilities in Australia to advance commitments announced following the Australian-US Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) 2021.

These commitments included the establishment of combined logistics, sustainment, and maintenance enterprise to support high end warfighting and combined military operations in the region.

Meanwhile, the US DOD will work with the Hawaii Department of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency to safely defuel the Red Hill facility.

The US Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro and Director of the Defense Logistics Agency Vice Admiral Michelle Skubic have been tasked with providing an action plan for decommissioning the facility by 31 May.  

“[As] soon as we have made corrective actions to ensure that defuelling will be safe, we will begin defuelling,” Secretary Austin said.

“Then we will move to permanently close the Red Hill facility, including conducting any and all necessary environmental remediation around the facility.

“This is the right thing to do.”

[Related: NT welcomes work on new US-backed fuel storage facility]

Charbel Kadib

News Editor – Defence and Security, Momentum Media

Prior to joining the defence and aerospace team in 2020, Charbel was news editor of The Adviser and Mortgage Business, where he covered developments in the banking and financial services sector for three years. Charbel has a keen interest in geopolitics and international relations, graduating from the University of Notre Dame with a double major in politics and journalism. Charbel has also completed internships with The Australian Department of Communications and the Arts and public relations agency Fifty Acres.