and the u.s. air force. what this means in very practical detail is from mid-2012, australia will welcome deployments of a company-sized rotation of 200 to 250 marines in the northern territory for around six months at a time. over a number of years we intend to build on this relationship in a staged way, to a full force of around 2,500 personnel, that is a full marine air/ground task force. a second component of these initiatives which we have agreed is greater access by u.s. military aircraft to the royal australian air force facilities in our country's north. this will involve more frequent movements of u.s. military aircraft into and out of northern australia. now, taken together, these two initiatives make our alliance stronger, they strengthen our