The US now has access to more than half Australia’s military bases – could it drag the country unwillingly into war?

US military interests control or have access to more than 100 defence facilities on Australian soil, in what some analysts describe as a “saturation” – even a “colonisation” – of the Australian continent.New data compiled by the Nautilus Institute and published by Guardian Australia maps the extent of US militarisation. The US military controls 17 facilities on mainland Australia and has access to 75 more Australian-run military installations. US defence corporations have access to an additional 18.In total, the US military and US defence corporations have control of or access to 110 facilities on Australian territory, well over half of all the military installations in Australia.“We have been thinking about American influence on Australian defence policy as a matter of penetration,” the database’s author, Prof Richard Tanter, tells the Guardian, “and we’re aware of the closeness of the alliance, the integration of the armed forces …“But what this database shows is it’s not a matter of penetration, it’s a matter of saturation. Over half of the defence facilities that we have looked at have some level of American access: that means American personnel, it means American corporations, some of the biggest armaments companies in the world.”The US military-industrial complex in Australia Each square represents one facility United States-controlled facilities with Australian access (17)Australian facilities with US military and US corporate access (24)Australian facilities with US military access (51)Australian facilities with US corporate access (18)Australian facilities with no significant US access (41)Australian facilities with US access unresolved (17) US access to Australian defence facilitiesAccess levelFacilitiesUnited States-controlled facilities with Australian access17Australian facilities with US military and US corporate access24Australian facilities with US military access51Australian facilities with US corporate access18Australian facilities with no significant US access41Australian facilities with US access unresolved17 Guardian graphic‘Aligning ourselves completely’The US military controls or has access to 92 defence facilities on Australian soil for: