Australia will be more important to the US under Trump, by Peter Jennings.

Far from the alliance being at risk, Australia is becoming more important to the United States for three reasons. First, a more assertive China is forcing harder strategic competition in Asia. …

Secondly, Australia’s geographic position is becoming more important to the US. The growing range and lethality of Chinese military capability is designed to push American naval and air power as far away from the Chinese mainland as possible. Beijing’s strategy is working, with the effect that the US has to look for options to disperse its forces and their logistic support. …

The third factor making Australia more important to the US is that we border the Indian Ocean region. As a tougher strategic competition spreads to the Indian Ocean, America will increasingly look to Australia to facilitate air and naval access to the region.

Some Australian defense tech recently helped save a US warship:

An Australian-designed anti-missile system, the Nulka, defeated a cruise missile attack on an American warship, the USS Mason, this October off the coast of Yemen.

The Nulka acts as an electronic decoy, diverting incoming missiles from their target. To my knowledge this was the first ever real-combat use of Nulka. Australia’s defence industry functions very well as high-technology partner for the US and is a powerful alliance link in its own right.

hat-tip Stephen Neil