Delayed by Pandemic, Marines Send Smaller Force to Darwin to Test New Marine Warfighting Concepts...

This year’s deployment to Darwin, in Australia’s Northern Territory, hasn’t gone as initially planned. Travel restrictions and quarantining requirements due to the novel coronavirus drove the Marine Corps to send a smaller, 1,200-member force for the rotational deployment program, now in its ninth year. That’s less than half the size that deployed in 2019, the first time Marine Rotational Force-Darwin reached its 2,500-personnel maximum.
Once the last group of Marines and sailors arriving in Australia gets cleared from a mandated 14-day quarantine, the training tempo will pick up quickly ahead of an annual exercise aimed at improving bilateral interoperability, senior commanders said this week.
The MRF-Darwin commander is optimistic the deployment will be valuable for his force and their Australian counterparts as they train together and build on bilateral military ties.