US marine stationed in Australia is charged with rape as base is ordered into lockdown
- US marine charge with rape
- Appeared in Darwin court
- READ MORE: Marines die in NT
A US marine stationed in Australia has been charged with aggravated assault and sexual intercourse without consent.
The 20-year-old marine was arrested in Palmerston, south of Darwin, on Monday in relation to the incident that allegedly occurred there earlier that day.
The American has been been granted bail to appear in Darwin Local Court at a later date.
Since 2012, The Marine Rotational Force has stationed personnel in the Top End of Australia at several military bases.
Starting with just 250 marines in the first year, there is now an air-ground task force of 2,500 personnel.
A 20-year-old US Marine is facing rape and assault charges after being arrested in the Northern Territory on Monday
A US Defence spokesperson said the marines were assisting NT Police with the investigation.
The spokesperson said the US Defence Force 'does not tolerate this kind of behavior and is committed to enforcing high standards of good order and discipline, and upholding justice and the rule of law,' he said.
The marines' base at Robertson Barracks is understood to have been locked down.
None of the 150 US military personnel are able leave the base of receive visitors, under what the spokesman called a 'restricted liberty status' at the base.
The Americans were due to leave Darwin in October following the joint Predators Run Exercise.
Predators Run was the NT's largest Australian-led military exercise but it came to a tragic conclusion when three marines were killed in a crash.
US Marine Corps crew chief Corporal Spencer Collart, 21, pilot Captain Eleanor LeBeau, 29, and Major Tobin Lewis, 37, died when their Boeing MV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft plunged to the ground and burst into flames on remote Melville Island, 80km north of Darwin near the end of August.
No Australian members were involved.
Along with Australian and US troops Indonesia, East Timor and the Philippines also took part in the training.
Robertson Barracks where 150 US marines are stationed has been locked down after the arrest
Send in the Marines: What the crack US troops will be doing in Australia
Last year's Marine Rotation Force - Darwin was accompanied by ten MV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft which were used in training exercises with the Australian Defence Force
The Marine Rotational Force - Darwin is an example of what the Marine Corps calls Marine Air Ground Task Forces. It is one of three elements of the US Marine Corps Forces, Pacific, headquartered in Hawaii.
Each year since 2012 the MRF-D has spent six months in Darwin undergoing training designed to increase the Marines' inter-operability with the Australian Defence Force and other regional partners.
Each rotation of the MRF-D in recent years has had three main elements: ground combat, aviation combat and logistics combat.
MRF-D personnel are drawn from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Pendleton in San Diego, and have been joined by ships and Marines from the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Courtney in Okinawa.
The rotation involves 2,500 personnel who came with ten Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, as well as Viper attack helicopters and Venom utility helicopters. This year's rotation will be accompanied by a battery of M777 Howitzers.
Most of the visiting troops have been based at Robertson Barracks in Darwin but some have in the past been deployed to Townsville's Lavarack Barracks in far north Queensland.
The Marines train extensively in the Northern Territory but also take part in exercises outside Australia including with forces from New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Tonga, and the French military force in the South Pacific.
Major live-fire exercises with Australian Defence Force units take place at Bradshaw Field Training Area and Mount Bundey Training Area in the Northern Territory, as well as at Shoalwater Bay on the Capricorn Coast of Queensland.
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