Australia has become increasingly embedded in the United States military apparatus, with new data revealing the US controls or has access to more than 100 military bases across the Australian continent — a level of expansion analysts say is unprecedented outside active conflict zones. Nuclear-capable US bombers already operate from Australian airfields, and nuclear-powered submarines are set to begin docking at HMAS Stirling (a Royal Australian Navy base near Perth) from next year under the AUKUS partnership. Analysts and former US defence officials warn that this entanglement effectively makes Australia an automatic target in any US conflict with China, raising urgent questions about whether Canberra would have any real choice but to join such a war — a question former prime minister and ambassador Kevin Rudd pointedly declined to answer when pressed this week.