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. 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 controls or has access to 92 defence facilities on Australian soil for: Gathering intelligence, accessing satellite data for targeting information and communications intercepts.

Training, including for 2,500 marines on dry-season rotation in the Northern Territory. Pre-positioning warfighting assets such as Osprey aircraft. Logistics hubs holding weapons, munitions and fuel, stored in case of a war in the Pacific.

Some bases, including Pine Gap, play critical roles in identifying targets for US strikes overseas and are well known by Australians, even if their operations are highly classified. Others are massive – the Bradshaw field training area in the Northern Territory is the size of Cyprus – but barely known. Announced in June, Bandiana base in Wodonga will be the site of tens of millions of dollars worth of pre-positioned US weapons, munitions, fuel and vehicles, stationed for rapid deployment in the event of conflict in the Pacific.

Beyond the military’s presence, at least 42 Australian military facilities are accessed by US defence contractors – some of the biggest weapons manufacturers in the world – which use Australian sites for manufacturing, testing and training of weapons systems deployed by militaries across the globe. Lockheed Martin assembles guided missiles in Port Wakefield, South Australia. Northrop Grumman signed a multimillion-dollar contract this year to build rocket motors for guided weapons at Mulwala in New South Wales.

Collaboration with US manufacturers will “promote allied interoperability and provide a second source of supply for critical munitions”, the Australian defence force says. Of the military bases that operate under US control, with Australian access, Pine Gap is the best known. But its precise role in US warfighting is hidden from public view.